An Act of War?

[dilloduck]

Where does one enlist in this cyber war ?

 

[bourne87]

Keep the troops home. Use Norton.

I think they should 2 defenses, along with Norton, they should use McAffee.

 

[bourne87]

Where does one enlist in this cyber war ?

Not only is twitter keeping us on the cutting edge of news such as letting us know what Dwight Howard thinks about the Michael Jackson Memorial, it keeps us updated on cyber war issues around the world, right on our computer.

 

[Navy1960]

Let's just assume that the White House and the NSA don't regularly check with the public over how they should approach such direct threats. You have no clue what they might be doing behind closed doors. The Pentagon alone gets hit with over 80,000 attempted hackings every single month, so I personally feel quite comfortable that they are literally on top of the current situation as well, although attacking North Korea probably isn't one of the options.

It's just unbelievable how Republicans love war. When we're not smack in the middle of one, they like to dream about the possibilities of the next one.

While I agree that the WH and NSA don't check with the public about such matters and I am well aware of the number of cyber attacks that DoD gets on a monthly basis. While I appreciate your opinion, do not assume that I love WAR, in fact as a someone who spent 23 years of my life in the Military, the very thought of war is revolting. Having said that though, I'm also a person that recognizes that there are individuals and nations that do not like the United States and would at all costs seek to destroy it. While many on the left think that simply appeasing these individuals will make them go away they seem to never learn the lessons of history and understand that appeasing these sorts of people you empower them and that leads to the deaths of more innocent people on a larger scale. I for one will not place my head in the sand and simply hope that issues such as these will just up and disappear because the new Administration has retasked the DoD to act as a secondary agent to the Sec. of State.

As for your assertion that this nation should not respond in kind, should it be found that any nation is behind this, I'm curious what would you propose we do then? Go to the UN and ask for more useless sanctions against N.K. that have so far produced nothing? The facts are N.K. does these things in order to provoke conflict because they know that the US and the UN will DO NOTHING to stop them. So it is my contention that in order to send a message that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated a strong response should be sent back in kind.

 

[Navy1960]

Must Gin up support for another useless war.....

Oh wait, the Neocons aren't in power anymore.

Or are they?

We shall see.

I'm curious what do you think the proper response to a nation that intentionally sets out to attack your Govts. computer infrastructure? Is it proper to respond in kind to a nation that does this sort of thing? The facts are people in this nation no matter how much they would like it to be so have to get used to the idea that there are some nations in the world that simply do not like the United States or what we stand for. That being the case to be able to defend ourselves from these nations is not "useless" by any stretch of the imagination unless of course your advocating the United States simply never defend itself no matter what the reason?

I'd assume our technological infrastructure is sufficient enough to hit N.K. back without putting boots on the ground for a "cyber-attack".

In ways that won't make it on the internet.

First, I'm sure that several departments within the US Govt. will respond to N.K. without it ever making it on the internet. Further, I'm not advocating boots on the ground in N.K. we already have several thousand boots on the ground at the DMZ , it's one of the reasons I have stated consistantly "in kind" . I do feel that the United States can and does have the ability to address this issue in the cyber realm and do so in a very strong manner.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I highly doubt that a third-world country like North Korea has the means to hack our government websites.

 

[Tech_Esq]

I don't think we should launch any real offensive cyber-attacks against NK. We might use the occasion to probe their defenses if we have certain vulnerabilities we would like to confirm, but we should tread lightly.

We should use the occasion of their attack to learn all we can about their capabilities. We should put up honeynets and honeypots to try to gain the most information we can about their attack techniques and methods. We should then use that information to develop and strengthen our defenses.

What we should not do is let them know what our capabilities are. It should come as a complete shock to them.

 

[Tech_Esq]

I highly doubt that a third-world country like North Korea has the means to hack our government websites.

Why do you think that?

 

[Tech_Esq]

Where does one enlist in this cyber war ?

Why, do you have some special skills?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I highly doubt that a third-world country like North Korea has the means to hack our government websites.

Why do you think that?

Well as I said, they're a third-world country. I can't see them having the technology to be able to hack into any of our government websites, which I would have to assume are the best protected websites in the world.

 

[Navy1960]

North Korean Cyber Capabilities Estimate:

Unit: 121

Established: 1998

Force Size: 12,000 declining

Cyber Budget: $56+ million.

Goal: To increase their military standing by advancing their asymmetric and cyber warfare capabilities.

Experience: Hacked into South Korea and caused substantial damage; hacked into the U.S. Defense Department Systems.

Threat Rating: North Korea is ranked 8th on the cyber capabilities threat matrix developed in August 2007 and updated February 2009.

Cyber Intelligence/Espionage: Basic to moderately advanced weapons with significant ongoing development into cyber intelligence.
Defense Tech: North Korea Poised for Cyber Salvo

 

[dilloduck]

Where does one enlist in this cyber war ?

Why, do you have some special skills?

I can type ( althought its a bit difficult ) . Stick me in the cyber infantry wear they put all the cannon fodder.

 

[Tech_Esq]

I highly doubt that a third-world country like North Korea has the means to hack our government websites.

Why do you think that?

Well as I said, they're a third-world country. I can't see them having the technology to be able to hack into any of our government websites, which I would have to assume are the best protected websites in the world.

I see. I think you are laboring under the misapprehension that in order to be successful at "hacking" one must have an extensive array of high tech equipment. Thus, a super power would have an advantage over a third world country. This is not the case.

Cyber-warfare is the ultimate in asymmetric warfare. All you need, depending on what you are doing, is a PC, some free tools and the knowledge to make them work. There are some other things you can do that involve botnets, but they probably aren't using those for this exercise.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

There is a difference between hacking a site (which these days requires a lot of skill) and a DOS attack, which I think is what happened here. Botnets however are getting harder to do, as people upgrade from IE6 to firefox. So this is interesting as an exercise in what nets can accomplish these days. It also speaks to a level of complacency in certain areas.

Russian mafias have run bot net rings for years against banks and online betting sites. It requires huge resources to beat them down, but it can be done. It also requires good sense on how to stop problems before they get anywhere.

for the Norks, this may have been a huge mistake, as they have signaled their intentions in a way that makes them easier to combat in the future. As for future exploits, it is just a matter of adding capacity.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Where does one enlist in this cyber war ?

Why, do you have some special skills?

I can type ( althought its a bit difficult ) . Stick me in the cyber infantry wear they put all the cannon fodder.

Hey, hey, hey....as a former Infantryman, we don't like the term "cannon fodder." We prefer "highly motivated, self propelled pop up target."

Even the cyber Infantry has to know how to run BackTrack and its associated tools.

 

[Tech_Esq]

There is a difference between hacking a site (which these days requires a lot of skill) and a DOS attack, which I think is what happened here. Botnets however are getting harder to do, as people upgrade from IE6 to firefox. So this is interesting as an exercise in what nets can accomplish these days. It also speaks to a level of complacency in certain areas.

Russian mafias have run bot net rings for years against banks and online betting sites. It requires huge resources to beat them down, but it can be done. It also requires good sense on how to stop problems before they get anywhere.

for the Norks, this may have been a huge mistake, as they have signaled their intentions in a way that makes them easier to combat in the future. As for future exploits, it is just a matter of adding capacity.

Exactly, I'm really surprised they brought up a botnet to do this. It totally exposes a difficult asset to create for no real reason.

 

[Lycurgus]

Obama simply needs to go speak with the man and the NK people and apologize, then everything will be fine!

 

[pdsst9]

North Korea is suspected of launching a cyber attack that paralysed the websites of South Korean and United States government agencies, banks and businesses, the first such large-scale attack attempted by the isolated communist state.

The attack came as Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, made a rare appearance at a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the death of his father, the founding president, Kim Il Sung.

The younger Mr Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke last August and dropped from view completely for several months.

South Korea’s intelligence agency has reportedly told members of parliament that it believes North Korea is behind the attack, which hit 25 websites on Tuesday evening, shutting some of them down for up to four hours.


It's about time as a nation we simply send a STRONG message to this regime. This is in a lot of ways an act of war on the part of North Korea should it be found out that they have been behind it. Our president and I doubt seriously that it will come to pass , should bring all US cyber assets into play against the N. Korean Govt. and shut that country down. It's high time this regime that exports deadly technology the world over and thumbs it nose at every sanction ever imposed on it be sent a message that it will CLEARLY understand.

I agree this could be constituted as an act of war, but I don't know this is the time we want to react. I'm no military expert, but I would imagine a lot of information could be gained from our enemies if we would use our cyber assets now. Do we want to cyber attack North Korea and potentially provide information to the Chinese or others about our capabilities? They may then be able to utilize that information to better prepare themselves against us.

 

[geauxtohell]

First, I'm sure that several departments within the US Govt. will respond to N.K. without it ever making it on the internet. Further, I'm not advocating boots on the ground in N.K. we already have several thousand boots on the ground at the DMZ , it's one of the reasons I have stated consistantly "in kind" . I do feel that the United States can and does have the ability to address this issue in the cyber realm and do so in a very strong manner.

Then we are in agreement.

I don't consider it an "act of war" though.

To me, an "act of war" involves loss of life. That's just a semantics issue though.

At any rate, 2nd ID knows they are a speed bump if N.K. ever floods over the border.

 

[Avatar4321]

Yes, I think it would qualify as an act of war.

Actually, I think renouncing the Peace accord that ended the Korean War was an declaration of war. How much clearer can you get than telling someone you are no longer peaceful with them?