Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The U.S. Is Not Prepared To Fight A Cyberwar

Cybersecurity experts monitor networks for attacks. Reuters

The U.S. Is Not Ready For A Cyberwar -- Washington Post editorial

A RECENT report by a task force of the Defense Science Board on cyber-conflict makes clear that all is not well in preparing for this new domain of warfare.

The U.S. military often uses “red” teams to challenge established “blue” teams in exercises. According to the report, small red teams, with only a short amount of time and using tools downloaded from the Internet, have been able to “significantly” disrupt blue team military operations. The task force said, “If this level of damage can be done by a few smart people, in a few days, using tools available to everyone, imagine what a determined, sophisticated adversary with large amounts of people, time, and money could do.” In another part of the report, the task force hints that U.S. nuclear weapons, hardened to survive an atomic blast in the Cold War, may not be ready to survive a cyber-onslaught. While the task force didn’t say what the vulnerability might be, they called for “immediate action” to make sure the nuclear weapons would survive.

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My Comment: A sobering assessment from the Washington Post editorial board. Read it all.

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