This Week at War: Their Own Private Internet

[Modbert]

This Week at War: Their Own Private Internet - By Robert Haddick | Foreign Policy

In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn reveals Operation Buckshot Yankee, the Pentagon's effort to counter what Lynn terms "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever." In 2008, a foreign intelligence service, which Lynn doesn't identify, slipped malicious software code onto a flash drive. This flash drive was subsequently inserted into a U.S. military laptop computer in the Middle East, spreading an infection across both classified and unclassified Defense Department networks. The infection was designed to extract information from these networks and deliver it back to the foreign intelligence service. Lynn describes the Pentagon's response to this incident as "a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy" and a catalyst for wide-ranging reforms.

According to Lynn, more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are attempting to break into U.S. networks. Lynn believes that a dozen determined hackers, if they found a vulnerability to exploit, could steal the U.S. military's plans, blind its intelligence systems, or disrupt its military operations. On the current cyber battlefield, offense is dominant, with U.S. cyberdefenders constantly lagging behind.

Lynn states, "[T]he United States cannot retreat behind a Maginot Line of firewalls or it will risk being overrun." In this case, the threat of punishing retaliation doesn't apply -- cyber attackers hide their identities and mask the origins of their attacks.

What is the answer? Lynn describes it near the end of his article: "[The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)] is also challenging the scientific community to rethink the basic design of the Pentagon's network architecture so that the military could redesign or retrofit hardware, operating systems, and computer languages with cybersecurity in mind." In other words, the Pentagon and its supporting infrastructure should leave the current cyber battlefield that so favors its adversaries. Instead of using commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware, software, and standard Internet protocols, the Pentagon would design and install customized and exclusive systems (at least for its classified and operational applications) that would deliberately be incompatible with the rest of the Internet.

Thoughts USMB? I think there is a lot of potential here for a lot of ground-breaking moves to be made in the never-ending cyber war.

 

[Mad Scientist]

the Pentagon and its supporting infrastructure should leave the current cyber battlefield that so favors its adversaries. Instead of using commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware, software, and standard Internet protocols, the Pentagon would design and install customized and exclusive systems (at least for its classified and operational applications) that would deliberately be incompatible with the rest of the Internet.

Thoughts USMB? I think there is a lot of potential here for a lot of ground-breaking moves to be made in the never-ending cyber war.

Sounds like a money pit.

 

[JakeStarkey]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/27/this_week_at_war_their_own_private_internet...Instead of using commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware, software, and standard Internet protocols, the Pentagon would design and install customized and exclusive systems (at least for its classified and operational applications) that would deliberately be incompatible with the rest of the Internet.

Thoughts USMB? I think there is a lot of potential here for a lot of ground-breaking moves to be made in the never-ending cyber war.

Sounds like a money pit.[/QUOTE]

The Pentagon may limit security breaches by creating its own R&D. The cost estimates will be much lower than the eventual cost overides. Privatization does not necesarily mean cost saving and better products, though; remember the "no-bid war" as the Iraq War was outsourced to private service firms, most notably Halliburton.

 

[Gunny]

This Week at War: Their Own Private Internet - By Robert Haddick | Foreign Policy

In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn reveals Operation Buckshot Yankee, the Pentagon's effort to counter what Lynn terms "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever." In 2008, a foreign intelligence service, which Lynn doesn't identify, slipped malicious software code onto a flash drive. This flash drive was subsequently inserted into a U.S. military laptop computer in the Middle East, spreading an infection across both classified and unclassified Defense Department networks. The infection was designed to extract information from these networks and deliver it back to the foreign intelligence service. Lynn describes the Pentagon's response to this incident as "a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy" and a catalyst for wide-ranging reforms.

According to Lynn, more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are attempting to break into U.S. networks. Lynn believes that a dozen determined hackers, if they found a vulnerability to exploit, could steal the U.S. military's plans, blind its intelligence systems, or disrupt its military operations. On the current cyber battlefield, offense is dominant, with U.S. cyberdefenders constantly lagging behind.

Lynn states, "[T]he United States cannot retreat behind a Maginot Line of firewalls or it will risk being overrun." In this case, the threat of punishing retaliation doesn't apply -- cyber attackers hide their identities and mask the origins of their attacks.

What is the answer? Lynn describes it near the end of his article: "[The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)] is also challenging the scientific community to rethink the basic design of the Pentagon's network architecture so that the military could redesign or retrofit hardware, operating systems, and computer languages with cybersecurity in mind." In other words, the Pentagon and its supporting infrastructure should leave the current cyber battlefield that so favors its adversaries. Instead of using commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware, software, and standard Internet protocols, the Pentagon would design and install customized and exclusive systems (at least for its classified and operational applications) that would deliberately be incompatible with the rest of the Internet.

Thoughts USMB? I think there is a lot of potential here for a lot of ground-breaking moves to be made in the never-ending cyber war.

The internet was created for DoD. Just like the interstate was created for DoD; yet, people think they have a "right" to clog it the fuck up with bullshit.

Get it?

 

[asterism]

This Week at War: Their Own Private Internet - By Robert Haddick | Foreign Policy

In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn reveals Operation Buckshot Yankee, the Pentagon's effort to counter what Lynn terms "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever." In 2008, a foreign intelligence service, which Lynn doesn't identify, slipped malicious software code onto a flash drive. This flash drive was subsequently inserted into a U.S. military laptop computer in the Middle East, spreading an infection across both classified and unclassified Defense Department networks. The infection was designed to extract information from these networks and deliver it back to the foreign intelligence service. Lynn describes the Pentagon's response to this incident as "a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy" and a catalyst for wide-ranging reforms.

According to Lynn, more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are attempting to break into U.S. networks. Lynn believes that a dozen determined hackers, if they found a vulnerability to exploit, could steal the U.S. military's plans, blind its intelligence systems, or disrupt its military operations. On the current cyber battlefield, offense is dominant, with U.S. cyberdefenders constantly lagging behind.

Lynn states, "[T]he United States cannot retreat behind a Maginot Line of firewalls or it will risk being overrun." In this case, the threat of punishing retaliation doesn't apply -- cyber attackers hide their identities and mask the origins of their attacks.

What is the answer? Lynn describes it near the end of his article: "[The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)] is also challenging the scientific community to rethink the basic design of the Pentagon's network architecture so that the military could redesign or retrofit hardware, operating systems, and computer languages with cybersecurity in mind." In other words, the Pentagon and its supporting infrastructure should leave the current cyber battlefield that so favors its adversaries. Instead of using commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware, software, and standard Internet protocols, the Pentagon would design and install customized and exclusive systems (at least for its classified and operational applications) that would deliberately be incompatible with the rest of the Internet.

Thoughts USMB? I think there is a lot of potential here for a lot of ground-breaking moves to be made in the never-ending cyber war.

Turning to the scientific community would make this new "secure by being obscure" equally risky, all because standard physical security protocols were not followed. They can't disable USB ports?