TransTracker 's Library tagged InfoWar →  View Popular

Secure Computing’s third-quarter Internet Threat Report
predicts that 2009 will see an increase in politically motivated
attacks such as those experienced already in Estonia and Georgia
(the nation, not the state).

However, for the time being, the surreptitious theft of data
from information technology systems, as Chinese hackers are alleged
to have done in this country, is likely to remain a more serious
threat.

Cyber attacks against infrastructure haven’t risen to the
level of real warfare or terrorism. Although the Estonian attacks,
suspected of having been carried out by Russian partisans in a
dispute between the nations, interfered with some online commerce,
denial-of-service attacks seldom have more than nuisance value in
disrupting some one-way communications from Web sites.

Studies indicate that the wholesale disruption of systems is
more difficult than often thought, and as systems become more
diverse, interconnected and complex, bringing them down only
becomes more difficult.

For the foreseeable future, Internet warfare is likely to remain
the domain of spooks operating under the radar rather than cyber
attackers carpet-bombing our infrastructure.

A spontaneous re-enactment of Orson Welles' 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast unfolded Friday on microblogging site Twitter.

Hundreds of tweets detailed a mock Martian invasion, with reports both panic-stricken and humorous.

"Smoking,
smoldering hunks of buildings, cars and people lay strewn about," wrote one user, joshlewis. "The
tripods have left the Warehouse District in ruins." 

Another, iancanfield, wrote: "The freeways are packed! I've heard from a few stuck on 252 and 94, they are sitting ducks."

"The trouble with this technology is that it is easily available but devilishly hard to crack," the source told the Mail. "The technology can now be accessed on mobile Internet devices and the country's mobile-phone network is expanding rapidly."

It's true that Skype's encryption is impossible to crack. It's also true that Skype is available for Windows Mobile smartphones.

But it's doubtful that a Taliban commander standing by the side of a dirt road 20 miles outside of Kandahar is going to get much mobile broadband Internet access on his $600 phone.

More likely, any insurgents using Skype to evade Western ears are sitting in front of regular old PCs, using fixed lines to route calls over the Internet.

Taliban fighters targeting British troops in Afghanistan are using the latest ‘internet phones’ to evade detection by MI6, security sources said last night.

Skype, a popular piece of consumer software that allows free calls to be made over the web, has been adopted by insurgents to communicate with cells strung out across the country.

Unlike traditional mobile calls, which can be monitored by RAF Nimrod spy planes, Skype calls – the commercial application of a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – are heavily encrypted.

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.

Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda's media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.

The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 -- and al-Qaeda's apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before -- has curbed the organization's dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders.

That is, they seem to have been given a highly

negative sense of the blogosphere, and were discouraging soldiers from

posting anything that might affect anything. Which to me is sass-akwards.

Milbloggers, in my non-humble opinion, have done more for the war effort

and more to correct misleading reports than the entire Army Public Affairs

Branch has (note: this is not a slam on them, but praise for the MilBlog

community). The Army should be encouraging troops to give *more*

information on their first-hand impressions and how things are going, not

less. "Winning the War" begins at home - we're not going to be defeated

here, but may have to pull out because of people's impressions at home,

which in my opinion seem to be shaped by misleading reports of what the

overall picture here is. (Note again - I'm writing less from my own direct

experiences than from the impression I get second-hand, both talking to

people who have direct experiences and reading what I consider to be

reliable sources).

This attitude towards soldier-bloggers, which might be

limited to just the 4th Division, seems to be another example of the Army

shooting itself in the foot - making it's mission harder.

What the Admiral didn’t answer, in my mind, was the bigger strategic question of why the military prioritized a potential threat to the network over a guaranteed benefit to the DoD’s information battle. Beyond this connectivity providing a morale boost for troops, it also has significant benefit in helping to tell the military story.

Yes, PAOs will have access to these sites. And yes, servicemembers can use them (if they can get to a computer where they can access them.) But the value of these blocked sites — and all of Web 2.0 — is for grassroots users to come together organically and share their experience. By restricting access to YouTube and MySpace, the military is also restricting the ability of any servicemember to help engage in the “hearts and minds” war.

In point of fact, there are several people who have been working on a modest proposal for trying to make some substantive changes to the information front.

The white paper being drafted is still quite rough, but some quick thoughts to share this day are the following:

1. Military PAO acitivites are based on an (early) industrial-age model, with some slight modifications that come from experience in WWII.

2. Many in leadership and rear-echelon positions are not comfortable with Web 0.5, much less Web 2.0 -- a condition that applies to industry as well as government.

3. The combination of these two factors, along with several others, means that current information acitivites are neither effective, efficient, or acceptable.

4. Blogs and Milblogs have shown some of what can be accomplished using more modern technology and models, as well as an innovative mindset.

5. Blogs and Milblogs, for all they have accomplished, are not the answer; but, rather an early prototype of one part of larger information effort and new model of information operations.

6. This new model will change information operations on a fundamental level, in much the same way that combat arms has been reshaped over the last two hundred years.

Simply trying to bring PAO and related activities up to date with blogs is not the answer. Simply trying to improve the information technology available to PAO and in-unit activities is not the answer. Technology, and even things like blogging, are but one part of a larger shift in the way information is being processed, accessed, and used. As such, it is not a technology issue but, rather, a fundamental change in the social and psychological framework (dynamics) of society.