USAF Considers Creation of Military Botnet

sowjetarschbajazzo writes "Air Force Col. Charles W. Williamson III believes that the United States military should maintain its own botnet, both as a deterrent towards those who would attempt to DDoS government networks, and an offensive weapon to be used against the networks of unfriendly nations, criminal groups, or terrorist organizations. "Some people would fear the possibility of botnet attacks on innocent parties. If the botnet is used in a strictly offensive manner, civilian computers may be attacked, but only if the enemy compels us. The U.S. will perform the same target preparation as for traditional targets and respect the law of armed conflict as Defense Department policy requires by analyzing necessity, proportionality and distinction among military, dual-use or civilian targets. But neither the law of armed conflict nor common sense would allow belligerents to hide behind the skirts of its civilians. If the enemy is using civilian computers in his country so as to cause us harm, then we may attack them." What does Slashdot think of this proposal?"

reminds me of the NSA backdoor..

[gbjbaanb]

You have 4 windows updates to install:

Security hotfix for XML services KB0453456
Security hotfix for Windows
Microsoft Silverlight
US DoD anti-terrorist cyberwarfare battle attack bot v3.1

Do you think they really wouldn't do it?

Search for Sarah Connor?

[Anonymous Coward]

One day this botnet will become self-aware...

lol

[Anonymous Coward]

We must not allow a botnet gap!!

Inaccurate Title

[hoshino]

"USAF Considers Creation of Military Botnet"?

The views expressed here are the authorâ(TM)s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Air Force or Defense Department.

Me: I like vanilla ice cream
Slashdot: Internet Ranks Vanilla as the Best Ice Cream Flavour Ever

Re:I'm Suprised

[nizo]

Maybe they could outsource it?

Re:where can i get some

[nizo]

You think Comcast had a cow about downloading movies, just wait until they see the traffic our government botnet generates.

Uh, guys...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Even if true, the assurance that all the usual standards will be upheld in choosing targets to attack just isn't all that reassuring. Building a botnet means attacking systems. Lots and lots of them. In order to be effective, a botnet has to be widely distributed and scattered amidst legitimate systems, otherwise you can just ignore it. Building a botnet would mean compromising a metric fuckload(possibly an imperial fuckload, depending on the department and contractor in question) of individual and business machines. Using domestic computers for this purpose had better be illegal, and even if it isn't, tolerating vulnerabilities in domestic systems just to build a botnet is lousy security policy. I suspect that our allies would not be happy to hear about us trying it on their citizens and our enemies might well raise a serious diplomatic stink about it.

Knowing us, of course, we'll probably take the even less palatable option and hire scummy contractors and subcontractors to do it. How could a DoD/Raytheon/Ukrainian Mob joint venture with a giant black budget possibly go wrong?

How long would it take?

[jmcwork]

How long would it take to design and deploy something like this as a government driven project. Maybe if they would write it in Ada....

Re:I'm Suprised

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that mean my computer can get a purple heart from being a causality during the internet wars?

Re:We must defend ourselves

[boyfaceddog]

Do you even know what a Botnet is?

I can just hear the Pentagon tech-office now.

TECH GUY 1: "Hey, we go this guy here who WANTS us to infect his PC with that Botnet thingy"
TECH GUY 2: "Lemme check. [CLICKITY-CLICK] Nope, already got 'im"

T3?

[WoodburyMan]

Whoever decided this DID NOT see Terminator 3.... Skynet = large botnet! It will turn on us!! AHH

Re:I'm Suprised

[AndGodSed]

and what will stop them from suddenly morphing and becoming an entity in and of itself? Did these people not watch the Matrix or Terminator???

Re:Which country would that be again?

[Zak3056]

Remember: Only you can prevent firewire.
This is your computer. This is your computer in a botnet.
Got v146rA? ....Please, buy your pharmaceuticals from a pharmacy, not junk email.

I just got a disturbing image of R. Lee Ermey chanting, "This is my PC, this is my Mac!"

Re:I'm Suprised

[dotancohen]

Storm might very well be Putin's botnet.

SELinux is the NSA's.

OT: I no longer have the Ajax reply option, I'm back at loading a new page to reply. Does anybody else still have it?

Re:The path...

[n1ckml007]

You RTFA? That's cheating!

Re:I'm Suprised

[Colin Smith]

Have you cracked RSA yet?

He doesn't need to. He just needs your birthday.