Re: [PLUG] Article on 'cyberwarfare'

[Bob Schwier <schwepes2002@yahoo.com>]

I'm top posting because it seems the easiest way to make my statement and 
to include what I am responding to for reference.  The difference between a
cyber criminal and a cyber warrior is both motivation and resources but the
methods are similar enough that protecting against the lighter threat will help
at least focus the mind on what must be done against the harder threat.
The discussion could then be framed in two ways, the first is what attacks would
be similar to criminal efforts and what ones would be unique to warfare.
bs
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On Sun, 2/1/15, Paul Walker <starsinmypockets@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [PLUG] Article on 'cyberwarfare'
 To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
 Date: Sunday, February 1, 2015, 9:36 AM
 
 I
 posted the article to try and prompt a conversation, but the
 conversation that ensued seems to address a different topic
 - not so much the idea of war taking place on the
 internet.  Instead we seem to be discussing the idea of
 crime on the internet. 
 I'm curious about the
 implications of state and / or other powerful actors using
 the internet as a staging ground for large scale attacks
 against other nation states, powerful actors, or large
 groups of people, as well as the implications of states
 using the internet against the interest of their own people.
 An example of the first category being Stuxnet or (perhaps?)
 the Sony exploits, while the second category is
 well-exemplified by surveillance practices brought to light
 by the Snowden leaks.
 
 I suppose that the
 militarization of the internet is not unlike the
 militarization of other frontier-spaces. The oceans and the
 sky in their time, earth orbit and beyond today. Clearly the
 implications are disturbing - the destruction of a satellite
 by North Korea proved that it's practical to render
 whole swaths of earth orbit useless. My sense is that the
 Internet is in the same fragile position.
 Depending on your level of
 cynicism, political solutions could be considered. Something
 along the lines of the START treaties. Enforceability seems
 to be a major issue. The level of physical infrastructure
 required to generate software threats is much smaller than,
 say, that required to generate nuclear weapons. The
 deniability factor is also much higher.
 Free, open source software
 could provide reasonable security against state-sponsored
 malware, but should probably be required at the
 infrastructure level in order to provide
 confidence.
 Beyond firewalls and the
 Balkanization of the internet, I'm curious what people
 see as solutions for, or preventative measures against, the
 militarization of the internet. I'm also curious how
 people think that the type of militarization discussed in
 the article will affect the internet as we know it for
 everyday users.
 
 On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at
 10:58 PM, Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>
 wrote:
 On Sat, Jan 31, 2015 at 10:31 PM, Joe
 Rosato <rosatoj@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 
 >
 
 > I'll stick by my assessment. ;-)
 
 
 
 Out of curiousity, what is your assessment?
 
 
 
 --
 
 Rich
 
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