Washington, it seems, can’t get no satisfaction.
After years of often-alarmist rhetoric about the threat of deadly …
Cyber
Free Federal Wireless Broadband For All Americans? Fuggedaboutit!
The United States government is not going to be providing free WiFi Internet access to consumers anytime soon.
New York Times Says Chinese Hacked Paper’s Computers
The attacks, which began in mid-September, coincided with a Times investigation into how the relatives and family of Premier Wen Jiabao built a fortune worth over $2 billion.
Panetta Sounds Alarm on Cyber-War Threat
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued what he said is a “clarion call” Thursday for Americans to wake up to the growing threat posed by cyber war.
“The whole point of this is that we simply don’t just sit back and wait for a …
Leon Panetta, Doomsday Cabin Salesman
This ad appeared on page 15 of Sunday’s New York Times. In stark terms, using a recent comment by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, it warns of impending cataclysm. It urges New York City readers to prepare for doom…by buying a cabin in the Catskills, “located less than two hours from New York City.”
The website linked to the ad …
On Cyber Warfare, the American Public Is Constantly Being Played by the Pentagon
From a Washington Post piece describing “Plan X,” the Pentagon’s new push to develop cutting-edge offensive cyber weapons:
It makes sense “to take this on right now,” said Richard M. George, a former National Security Agency
…
$60 Billion
Counterstrike: A Post-9/11 Report Card
There is a flood of 9/11 books now coming onto the market, but Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of the New York Times should be atop the list of anyone curious about how the U.S. government has grappled with the challenges posed by al Qaeda.
Both authors …
“Who Are the Real Cyber-Warriors?”
National-security debates used to be a lot easier when it took a nation-state to raise an army and build an arsenal. To hear some cyber-defense experts tell it, today a cyberwar can be launched by a couple of bored teen-age hackers in one of their basements. While that’s a stretch, what about criminal cybergangs? Or nation-states? …
“Cyber War: Fact or Fiction?”
Defending against the invisible menace of online cyber-attacks has become one of the Pentagon’s biggest growth areas. But should it be? Kristin Lord of the Center for a New American Security, who recently led a study into the issue, discusses the balancing act associated with this new way of war. She’s joined by colleague John …
“How Vulnerable Is Our Infrastructure to Cyber Attack?”
The folks who get paid to stay up at night worrying about cyber-security are always telling us that our basic infrastructure — the online computer networks that run our water, electricity, banking and other vital systems — are big fat targets just waiting to be taken down by skilled hackers. Well, it hasn’t happened yet. Are we …
“How Tough Is It to Tell Who Launched a Cyber Attack?”
The word attribution always crops up when experts debate the challenges of deterring a cyber attack. It simply means determining just who is responsible for nefarious acts online — where anonymity has long been a prized asset. Here, I discuss the challenge of finding such digital fingerprints with James Lewis, a cyberwar expert at …
“Is a Cyber Pearl Harbor on the Horizon?”
This week on Command Post, John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security and I discuss the potential horror — and the potential hype — of cyber war with James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Kristin Lord of CNAS. Key question: now that the Cold War has melted into history, is the …
