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Pentagon Cyberweapons 'Disappointing' Against ISIS (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times:
It has been more than a year since the Pentagon announced that it was opening a new line of combat against the Islamic State, directing Cyber Command, then six years old, to mount computer-network attacks... "In general, there was some sense of disappointment in the overall ability for cyberoperations to land a major blow against ISIS," or the Islamic State, said Joshua Geltzer, who was the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council until March. "This is just much harder in practice than people think..."
Even one of the rare successes against the Islamic State belongs at least in part to Israel, which was America's partner in the attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. Top Israeli cyberoperators penetrated a small cell of extremist bombmakers in Syria months ago, the officials said. That was how the United States learned that the terrorist group was working to make explosives that fooled airport X-ray machines and other screening by looking exactly like batteries for laptop computers... The information helped prompt a ban in March on large electronic devices in carry-on luggage on flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries to the United States and Britain.
Citing military officials, the Times also reports that "locking Islamic State propaganda specialists out of their accounts -- or using the coordinates of their phones and computers to target them for a drone attack -- is now standard operating procedure."
Even one of the rare successes against the Islamic State belongs at least in part to Israel, which was America's partner in the attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. Top Israeli cyberoperators penetrated a small cell of extremist bombmakers in Syria months ago, the officials said. That was how the United States learned that the terrorist group was working to make explosives that fooled airport X-ray machines and other screening by looking exactly like batteries for laptop computers... The information helped prompt a ban in March on large electronic devices in carry-on luggage on flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries to the United States and Britain.
Citing military officials, the Times also reports that "locking Islamic State propaganda specialists out of their accounts -- or using the coordinates of their phones and computers to target them for a drone attack -- is now standard operating procedure."
Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a cosmonaut.
And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.
The post says that things are a failure, but it also says they were a success.
Maybe EditorDavid needs some lithium for his bipolar disorder. LOL.
Perhaps the bar is set too high, for one to come to this conclusion.
What is the perceived goal? Maybe we simply need to manage our expectations
Beau, does this Dragon Net Appliance count as something "worthy" in your books? Or are you too STUPID to understand?
I thought Trump had a secret, really really good plan to defeat them -- it won't be hard believe me.
Did that not happen?
http://nedroid.com/2012/05/honk-the-databus/
Bombs and bullets still better at dealing with the problem.
He knows many computers, yuge computers and he knows how to use them. Trump knows more about computers than the people who build them. He's got the best people working on this and they will implement such a beautiful plan even Crooked Hillary will cry over it.
ISIS is an American creation and they were using their creation to oust Assad until Russia stepped in. Now US is trying to save face and actually putting in some effort into stopping their monstrosity.
The terrorists are winning! We need more cyber stuff (especially mass surveillance) to stop the terrorists! If we don't ramp it up there will be more terror attacks besides 9/11 (year 2001, almost 16 years ago).
Of *course* these "cyberweapons" are ineffective against ISIS!
These weapons and the entire current US surveillance infrastructure were designed from their inceptions to monitor and control the US population and their digital communications. It is entirely unsuited to combating external threats.
That's like using a hammer on a machine-screw. Duh! Wrong tool for the job.
It's either that, or the US government has known beforehand of past attacks and allowed them to go forward and kill innocent people to stir up fear and panic so the populace will be willing to let them take away and violate the people's rights, freedoms, and privacy.
They are either so incompetent they should be removed from power, or they are totalitarian/authoritarian, oath-violating, power-seeking, criminal, seditious, corrupt, shitheads that should be hung by the neck from the nearest tall object and left up as an object lesson. I leave the decision to the reader.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Citing military officials, the Times also reports that "locking Islamic State propaganda specialists out of their accounts -- or using the coordinates of their phones and computers to target them for a drone attack -- is now standard operating procedure."
Locking them out of their accounts means squat - it's trivial for them to create new ones. Also, given all the cash ISIS has from the Iraqi & Syrian oil it sold, wouldn't they have enough money to buy whatever hardware they needed? As for software, a lot of it is FOSS which ISIS hackers can use just like anyone else.
Also, cyberweapons are completely useless in separating terrorists from their human shields, which is the reason Raqqah hasn't already been overrun. Everybody has a major cow over civilian casualties, despite the fact that only one side - ours - is concerned about that. But the people of Raqqah are not innocent bystanders: they are Sunni opponents of the Assad regime and support ISIS for that reason. Levelling the city would be a good solution, but unpalatable to our PCMC sensibilities. At one time, Trump was fine w/ levelling the place, but has handed it over completely to Mattis, who's treating it w/ kit gloves. Despite his name 'Maddog', Mattis is very much an Islam pandering dove
As far as online goes, FaceBook & Twitter can chase accounts all they want. The real solution is blocking IP addresses from both Syria and Iraq. As it is, the Assad regime is sanctioned, so it's not like there are any innocent parties there who need to get their internet. Block that access, and monitor any communications coming out of Syria or Northern Iraq.
But they're REALLY effective against themselves and the American people, when they leak.
an organization that relies primarily on soviet era guns, makeshift bombs and the occasional 50 caliber on the back of a Toyota? Ya don't say... Next you'll tell me they're completely ineffective against the Amish.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Back in early 2000s, Al Qaeda (cough CIA's clandestine Arabic unit cough) tried in desperate vain to have a simple html web page that was properly taken down multiple times by registrars and well to do web security professionals.
Nowadays, we have major corporations who are so inept that they let the same malcontents run their propaganda crap on simple to use platforms instead of immediately banning them.
You want to fight an information war? Start by banning their social media accounts.
Everybody has a major cow over civilian casualties, despite the fact that only one side - ours - is concerned about that. But the people of Raqqah are not innocent bystanders: they are Sunni opponents of the Assad regime and support ISIS for that reason.
No, the vast majority of the people of Raqqah are just ordinary people that want to live a decent life, just like most everyone else all over the planet.
Levelling the city would be a good solution, but unpalatable to our PCMC sensibilities.
What you're proposing is genocide. I have no idea what PCMC sensibilities are, but yes, I'm all in favour of having a major cow over that. And that's just based on ethics, there's also the point that levelling a city is a very effective way to create terrorists.
First, cargo hold of airplanes are not bulletproof, it is dangerous if it explodes at cargo hold too. Second, it is already SOP at almost every airport xray worldwide to turn on the laptop so the security can confirm that the battery is functioning and not a bomb.
This story sounds like a useless propaganda, aka fake news.
I bet ISIS refused to run the windows updates required to allow the cyberwarfare thingymagic! :)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
No, the vast majority of the people of Raqqah are just ordinary people that want to live a decent life, just like most everyone else all over the planet.
And your evidence for that is? Historically, that entire region has been about either Muslims persecuting non Muslims (Christians, Yazidis, et al), Arab Muslims persecuting non Arabs - Muslim or not - like Kurds, Sunnis persecuting Shia wherever they are in the majority (like Saudi Arabia), Shia persecuting Sunnis wherever they are in the majority (like Iraq, Iran) and so on. The people of Raqqah are no different. They threw their lot in w/ ISIS b'cos like most of their Sunni compatriots, they can't stand the idea of an Alewite regime in Damascus. Incidentally, the converse is true as well - the Alawites know that if the Sunnis came to power, the Alawites would be massacred
What you're proposing is genocide. I have no idea what PCMC sensibilities are, but yes, I'm all in favour of having a major cow over that. And that's just based on ethics, there's also the point that levelling a city is a very effective way to create terrorists.
It's called war. Genocide would be if a city w/ only civilians but no fighters were to be massacred - something like the recent Syrian chemical weapons attack. But if in a city you have a mix of terrorists & civilians, you level it, and the civilians are collateral damage. Throughout history, innocent civilians have died in wars, which is why one tries not to have them in the first place. But if they are fought, the consequences have to be recognized - that innocent civilians are going to die in the process. Once they make an example of any place by levelling it, ISIS will realize that using human shields is useless, and they'll resort to other tactics. Thereby, ironically, such massacres would minimize future hostage situations where Jihad terrorists try to blackmail those Geneva convention complaint armies into not attacking them.
"or using the coordinates of their phones and computers to target them for a drone attack"
So ISIS just have to use a phone to post crap to Facebook, then drop it wherever they want bombed, and the Americans will bomb it for them?
Fool proof ISIS plan:
Get phone comprised
Drop phone off in location you want bombed
Prophet as drone destroys target.
Alah Akbar!!!
In concert?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUa8bkfOrQ
They rock!
... it is already SOP at almost every airport xray worldwide to turn on the laptop so the security can confirm that the battery is functioning and not a bomb.
You don't actually fly anywhere, do you.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
FTFY
BAE Systems' subsidiary, Applied Intelligence, got around UK export controls by having it's Denmarked-based subsidiary sell Qatar (ISIS buds) their Evident technology, which has state-of-the-art decryption programs (for decrypting your emails, etc.). Stands to reason the Pentagon stuff would be a dud.
Of course. al Qaida, ISIS and others are smart enough not to depend on comms that can be intercepted or compromised for their operations. Recruiting new members using Facebook or YouTube videos? Sure. But not critical command and control.
Even one of the rare successes against the Islamic State belongs at least in part to Israel, which was America's partner in the attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. Top Israeli cyberoperators penetrated a small cell of extremist bombmakers in Syria months ago,
False flag operation. ISIS is subsidized by Israel. Notice how the heat (and media attention) are off of them for their actions in the West Bank since ISIS became a thing? Giving up that cell just proves that they are our true friends and should be trusted implicitly in all things Middle East. The technology needed to sneak stuff through airport security is SOP for Mossad. They set ISIS bomb makers up with just enough knowledge to make them look dangerous. And bump out threat level up to the next color.
I'd much rather have a bomb go off in a cargo hold. Where the bomber has no control of it's exact location and the blast might be muffled by suitcases full of clothing. Instead of being held up against the fuselage wall in the cabin.
Have gnu, will travel.
We just need to send ISIS some laptops with WindowsXP installed. Then they will be easy to cyber-attack.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
So, one building in the middle of *no*where takes down SONY pictures and makes 300,000 computers wanna cry in 170 counties and the US has no power to fight back.
Time to consider OpenBSD.
LOL where did the floors go?
building 7 was pulled and you can see 7 floors stacked on the ground
But the 100 floor building only produced 10 floors of materials.
The missing gold, the early clean up run by bush's brother, building 7, the insurance, the missing gold, the dancing isralies, bush allowed saudis to leave immediately when all flights were forbidden.
Most importantly, the earth quake detector didn't detect the mass of the twin towers falling, as if the tower mass disappeared before falling.
This is hard science, you can't fake that.
Dr Judy Wood: Where did the towers Go?
What's the biggest threat: bombs in the cargo hold, or an undiscovered fire from a Lithium Ion battery?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
And your evidence for that is? Historically, that entire region has been about either Muslims persecuting non Muslims (Christians, Yazidis, et al), Arab Muslims persecuting non Arabs - Muslim or not - like Kurds, Sunnis persecuting Shia wherever they are in the majority (like Saudi Arabia), Shia persecuting Sunnis wherever they are in the majority (like Iraq, Iran) and so on. The people of Raqqah are no different. They threw their lot in w/ ISIS b'cos like most of their Sunni compatriots, they can't stand the idea of an Alewite regime in Damascus. Incidentally, the converse is true as well - the Alawites know that if the Sunnis came to power, the Alawites would be massacred
Do you honestly think that Ahmed the grocer and Alia the farmer's wife and the thousands of their colleagues leading simple lives have had any influence on these events? Do they really deserve to be `collateral damage' for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
What you're proposing is genocide. I have no idea what PCMC sensibilities are, but yes, I'm all in favour of having a major cow over that. And that's just based on ethics, there's also the point that levelling a city is a very effective way to create terrorists.
It's called war. Genocide would be if a city w/ only civilians but no fighters were to be massacred - something like the recent Syrian chemical weapons attack. But if in a city you have a mix of terrorists & civilians, you level it, and the civilians are collateral damage. Throughout history, innocent civilians have died in wars, which is why one tries not to have them in the first place. But if they are fought, the consequences have to be recognized - that innocent civilians are going to die in the process. Once they make an example of any place by levelling it, ISIS will realize that using human shields is useless, and they'll resort to other tactics. Thereby, ironically, such massacres would minimize future hostage situations where Jihad terrorists try to blackmail those Geneva convention complaint armies into not attacking them.
My, what a neat little theory you have for your blood thirst. You may want to look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for people that had theories like yours, and what happened to them. Yes, it is war. That's why genocide is called a warcrime.
These guys must be using Linux, since all/most of the hacking tools the US has are for Windows platform... Duh!
Is put trackers in all those Toyotas they sold them. Then they could drone them up at will. Maybe put trackers in all the arms we sold over there to Saudi Arabia as well. --OR-- We could stop providing material support to anyone in the entire region and anyone who does business with those in the region since all of our arms and materials end up in the hands of terrorists.
When Wikileaks outs tools, practices, and procedures people cheer. When attempts to fight ISIS are claimed to be having little success do we cheer then too? I don't think we can be upset that efforts are failing while at the same time encouraging leaks. Which is it?
Kid needs to get back to work on the cyber
What's the biggest threat:
It's sort of a toss-up. There have been a few laptop fires. There have also been a couple of bombs on aircraft.
Have gnu, will travel.
Locking them out of their accounts means squat - it's trivial for them to create new ones.
I disagree. It depends upon how they are locked out of their accounts. Facebook is currently using AI to discover and auto-ban these accounts. These programs are not only effective but employ machine learning, so they adapt as the terrorists change their tactics. There's nothing more hopeless than competing against a computer opponent who never tires, never gets bored, never sleeps, is relentless in the extreme and never stops hunting down your accounts and deleting them. I don't care who you are or how fanatical you are, after a time that has to be demoralizing. At some point they're spending all of their time fighting against an adversarial bot just to post a few messages online that get deleted in a matter of minutes before anyone can really see them. Even the most hardcore Jihadi is going to throw his hands up and scream in frustration after a few weeks of that game. How about a nice game of chess?
... its shit away ...
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I have no idea what PCMC sensibilities are
PCMC (ftom PCMCIA) stands for Personal Computer Memory Card.
Memory cards are known to be sensitive to electrostatic discharge.
Exactly what I was going to say. Low tech gets no respect these days.
Inept my ass, when they're banning the Arab gay and atheist groups for "hate speech" against ISIS then it's not ineptness.
Hey, but using the word BUMMER onbaord the flight would get you arrested too.
Except there's a smoke detector at cargo hold, heck even the landing gear bay where wheels are stowed are protected by smoke detectors.
That's the one question western media will never ask.
The answer is big western oil companies of course.
The same people who created ISIS is the one who've been buying their oil.
They're the only one who can buy from them for this long without getting into trouble.
Anyone else who buy from them will be labeled "terrerists".
Unless you are the same gang who run the oil business and also control the western media.
Stupid morons just don't ask these questions.
I am saying you're a dumb cunt for not doing your own research and realize the earth quake data didn't match the mass of the tower.
You can't argue with earth quake data you dumb cunt.
Lol your "government" have done far worse, 911 is nothing.
Name the share holder of your "federal" reserve.
Which is a private company.
Everyone else around the world knows your government created ISIS.
You stupid Americans are so fucking clueless.
Classic stupid Americans.
When you can't argue with facts, act like idiots and laugh at your own stupidity.
LOL you proved me wrong?
You mean you proved US earth quake detectors wrong by using the word "aliens"?
You are a dumb cunt, that's an accurate description.
There are 2 hours of irrefutable evidence in the video, you can't deal with it that's why you start talking about aliens instead of looking at hard facts.
phantomfive: anything that blows things up or is destructive is always a good idea
Indeed, anything that blows things up or is destructive is always a good idea.
I had one idea last fourth of July to separate di-hydrogen-monoxide with some electrodes into a floating pillar of its component parts hydrogen and oxygen, then reassembling it very quickly.
I saw another guy install a switch in a baseball bat, and connect it to a camera. Then use it to take pictures at very interesting moments. On the watermelon, on the egg, , on the soda can.
Another idea might be some kind of musical instrument. Put a microphone next to almost anything that vibrates or beats and it can make interesting musical noise. You can investigate variations in length, density, etc, and how that varies the tone and pitch.
Maybe build a trebuchet?
I still say let 'em blow something up.
I am going to have so much fun with you.
You're going to be on so many lists.
Enjoy your stay on the no fly list.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
https://tips.fbi.gov/thank-you...
Thank You
Your tip has been submitted.
phantomfive you really shouldn't talk about making bombs online and claim it's "always a good idea" to "blowing things up".
And all I am doing is reporting an anti-social bomb maker to various law enforcement agencies.
You've shown serious signs of anti-social behavior.
You seem to think it's fun to hurt innocent people.
https://www.tsa.gov/contact/co...
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Thank you for your contribution.
What you're proposing is genocide. I have no idea what PCMC sensibilities are, but yes, I'm all in favour of having a major cow over that. And that's just based on ethics,
What, you dislike the glass parking lot aesthetic?
there's also the point that levelling a city is a very effective way to create terrorists.
Not if we nuke it from orbit. Unless you think that terrorists somehow don't need to be alive to be created.
(The root of the problem is that the whole mess is largely created by the US gov't, first the CIA with al quaida, then the ensuing fantastic mismanagement through, among other things, two "junior make too!" wars. Meaning that as long as the US fails to recognise it and keeps on doing the same stupid shit again and again, there'll never be peace in the wasteland they themselves devastated. Instead, the wasteland will grow and grow, like a desert made through land mismanagement.
Of course, the US isn't the only guilty party, but the others, eg. that bunch of spineless tards floating like scum atop the cesspit called the EU headquarters, are merely acting as vassals to the US empire, not as instigators. That's all USoA. (So what is the superlative to "cesspit"?)
This, by the by is mr. orange's big winning ticket: Though be he as stupid as they come, as long as his shit is sufficiently different, it just might be a small win, but a win, for the world. But so far, doesn't look like that'll be the case. The entrenched TLAgencies are just too strong, wagging the dog all the way.)
Do you honestly think that Ahmed the grocer and Alia the farmer's wife and the thousands of their colleagues leading simple lives have had any influence on these events? Do they really deserve to be `collateral damage' for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
The problem with that argument is that it applies equally to Helmut the grocer and Helga the farmer's wife.
There were very few cows had.
Now, to what extent Ahmed and Alia are comparable to Helmut and Helga in this particular case, and in this particular time I don't know. I'm just pointing out that for there apparently is clear historical modern precedent.
Stefan Axelsson
This might just work, iff you are prepared to ruthlessly censor any and all channels carrying news of the attack to western audiences. If people in the west know that mass slaughter of civilians is being conducted in their name, then there will continue to be great value to ISIS in having human shields - because they know our people won't put up with that shit indefinitely.
I am going to dig everything out of everyone in your family.
Right, and in the end, the people who stand up against that 'shit' will all have their throats slit open by Jihadists b'cos they are too 'humane' to do what would actually solve the problem!