US Cyber Command Wants Greater Attack Mentality

superglaze writes "Lieutenant General Robert J Elder, Jr, a senior figure in US Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), has told ZDNet UK that communication issues are hampering the division's co-ordination. 'IT people set up traditional IT networks with the idea of making them secure to operate and defend,' said Elder. 'The traditional security approach is to put up barriers, like firewalls — it's a defense thing — but everyone in an operations network is also part of the [attack] force. We're trying to move away from clandestine operations. We're looking for real physics — a bigger bang resulting in collateral damage.'"

Cyber??

[NeutronCowboy]

This is exploiting cyber to achieve our objectives.

I'm sorry, what? All I can picture is a pimply teenager sitting in front a flickering screen, typing "Wanna cyber????" into his chat field. I have no idea how to exploit cybering to achieve military objectives. Maybe they want to paralyze the target's networks by getting all lonely teenagers to respond to mass cyber requests?

Translation

[Verteiron]

If I run nmap -A on the Cyber Command website, they want to be able to make my head explode in retaliation. With "cyber".

Re:Fantastic

[Farmer Tim]

With that "a bigger bang resulting in collateral damage" line, I thought this guy was a spammer.

Hello Citizen

[RichMan]

Hello US Citizen,

Your ISP has identified you as subscribing to a connection with >1Mbs upload speed. A recent top-secret national security bill requires all citizens with such bandwidth to become part of the national defense infrastructure. Attached to this email you will find an application. Install it. It will self register with homeland defense and be available for defense of the homeland should the need arise.

Thank you for your cooperation.
ZZ

PS: you have 1 week to register or you will be added to the terrorism watch list and will be subject to extreme rendition if needed.
PPS: we can't show you the bill, this is top-secret national defense stuff.
PPPS: if you are thinking of decompiling or interfering with the operation of this software, see PS:
PPPPS: yes this is MS windows Vista only software. Don't have Vista, see PS:

IPS?

[ohzero]

Active heuristic-based IPS in lieu of firewalling would likely provide the flexibility for outgoing attacks and incoming responses without just blindly blocking important traffic. Ok, problem solved. My rate for providing advice to the military is $1.7m per second, which I believe falls into the regular GSA schedule. Payment due immediately.

Re:Just what we need

[ohzero]

I've discussed with them, and we've all decided that we're just going to start dropping the new DHB (dozen hippie bombs) on hostile nations. The only question is.. what will we do with all the surplus dreadlocks?

Re:Fantastic

[Naughty Bob]

With that "a bigger bang resulting in collateral damage" line, I thought this guy was a spammer.

No, he'd just had one too many glasses of grain alcohol and rain water.

Re:IPS?

[db32]

No problem, we will be sending you the bill shortly. The taxes on this work will be calculated at $1.8m per second. We look forward to receiving your payment in a timely manner. -- IRS

Collateral Damage?

[BigBlueOx]

Bigger Bang? Windows! You're talkin' about Windows!

Attack!

[GottliebPins]

I can see it now. Somewhere in China or Nigeria a hacker is trying to gain access to a U.S. government network and suddenly their own systems are attacked from hundreds of locations around the world bringing their network to it's knees! Revenge is sweet!

Didn't know the Airforce was into this stuff

[adrenalinekick]

I put on my robe and wizard hat...

Re:Great...

[Chris Mattern]

For example, programs that are written in Java effectively cannot be hacked due to bugs.

Java has so many bugs in it that it can't be hacked?

Re:They are right

[Missing_dc]

Can't we just shoot em? I really don't feel right biting some guy's ass.

Re:Just what we need

[spazdor]

I've got an awesome Anti-Tiger Rock to sell you.

Re:War is physics...

[Lemmy Caution]

I found your mistake. It should be:

me@myhost:~$ sudo access all secret files

Re:Great...

[0xABADC0DA]

Java has so many bugs in it that it can't be hacked?

No, but your English parser does. There was a small defect in the input and instead of handling it gracefully it corrupted the discussion.

That's why you just got the uncontrollable urge to eat brains.

Re:Fantastic

[Architect_sasyr]

Communist subversion

SEE! Subversion is bad! Use CVS, stay away from svn repositories. Someone with a UID far smaller than mine says so!