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US May Use Cyberattacks As Offensive Weapon, DoD Says
In what appears to be an effort to ensure that James Franco and Seth Rogen are never again sabotaged by evil North Korean hackers, the Pentagon is out with a new plan that explains when it may be necessary to take the cyber fight to the “aggressors” in order to “mitigate potential cyberrisk to the US homeland.”
Unsurprisingly, the list of cyber adversaries is indistinguishable from what might fairly be called Washington’s “usual suspects.” The villains are: Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea. In fact, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says the Pentagon was recently the target of a Russian “cyber intrusion” which he claims was quickly detected by a government “crack team.” Carter’s comments, which came during a speech at Stanford, also indicated that the US could use cyber attacks as an offensive weapon should circumstances warrant it. Here’s more via NY Times:
The Pentagon on Thursday took a major step designed to instill a measure of fear in potential cyberadversaries, releasing a new strategy that for the first time explicitly discusses the circumstances under which cyberweapons could be used against an attacker, and naming the countries it says present the greatest threat: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
But President Obama’s decision to publicly name North Korea’s leaders for ordering the largest destructive attack on an American target, the announcement of new sanctions against state-sponsored and criminal hackers, and the indictment of five members of the People’s Liberation Army for attacking American corporate targets all reflect a sea change in administration policy.
American officials have fumed for years that cyberattacks were largely cost-free. Now, much as Presidents Truman and Eisenhower struggled to define circumstances that could prompt a nuclear response from the United States, Mr. Obama and his aides are beginning to lay out conditions under which the nation would employ cyberattacks — either in retaliation for a strike, as an offensive weapon for conflict or in covert action. They have made no mention of the central role the United States played in the large cyberstrike against Iran’s nuclear program.
In his speech at Stanford, Mr. Carter revealed that — like the White House and the State Department — the Pentagon found itself the victim of a cyberintrusion months ago.
“The sensors that guard DoD’s unclassified networks detected Russian hackers accessing one of our networks,” he said, saying the attack exploited “an old vulnerability in one of our legacy networks that hadn’t been patched.” He said that a “crack team of incident responders” had “quickly kicked them off the network.”
“As a matter of principle, the United States will seek to exhaust all network defense and law enforcement options to mitigate any potential cyberrisk to the U.S. homeland or U.S. interests before conducting a cyberspace operation,” the strategy says.
But it adds that “there may be times when the president or the secretary of defense may determine that it would be appropriate for the U.S. military to conduct cyber operations to disrupt an adversary’s military related networks or infrastructure so that the U.S. military can protect U.S. interests in an area of operations. For example, the United States military might use cyber operations to terminate an ongoing conflict on U.S. terms, or to disrupt an adversary’s military systems to prevent the use of force against U.S. interests.” That last phrase seemed to leave open the door for pre-emptive cyber attacks.
Amusingly (and as hinted at above), the Pentagon wants cyber enemies to know that the US is prepared to take the same stance on cyber attacks as it does on nuclear deterrence. Namely that America is building up its capabilities for defensive purposes only but will not hesitate to keep its offensive “options” open. Here’s the Department of Defense:
“Still,” Carter said, “adversaries should know that our preference for deterrence and our defensive posture don’t diminish our willingness to use cyber options if necessary.”
And more from The Times:
“Deterrence is partially a function of perception,” the new strategy says. “It works by convincing a potential adversary that it will suffer unacceptable costs if it conducts an attack on the United States."
So in other words: the best defense is a good offense.
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Here’s the official fact sheet from DoD:
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DoS is a form of censorship. Maybe they should think about replacing Chinese immigrant workers at Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Los Alamos with Americans.
Hell, they're already hacking me...
No doubt....
I wonder if they can hack those illegal AK-47s & AR-15s those Cartels are buying (or making) and shipping to Amexica though?
Something tells me they aren't even ready for it....
Is it just a coincidence that all four of those 'rogue' countries also hates Israel? I think not
You don't want to piss off those Russian hackers. It's like taking potshots at some Russian mobster... it might look like fun for a while, until they come after you with all they have & know !
Dear Mr. US. You've been cyber jacked.
May? What was Stuxnet then? Lieing imbeciles.
No kidding, this statement from the DoD is a joke. They're already doing this and have been for decades. Against their own people, too. Paging Mrs. Atkinson!
I remember the speech when Bush used the word "homeland"
Freaked me out......I knew that the warwhore fascist NeoCons had won.....
Which means they already have
Exactly. What's this "may determine" and "might use" bullshit? What it really sounds like is that, after inventing and dominating this type of warfare for a long time, the competition is catching up. As always, announcing that you're gearing up for a "new" threat is the first step towards getting a budget increase.
Of course this means that the Fed Gov't and Google and Facbook will HAVE TO monitor and store ALL US citizens data ... "it's to protect the country".... "think of youe childrens' future".
I hear people whining about Martial Law, but let's get absoltuely stone cold real here, if there were 85 Million Chinese in the UK, you would have a very SERIOUS fooking problem on your hands....
Amexica better wake the hell up, fast....
Exporting Microsoft software = cyberattack.
Fuck off cunt, the Obama and Clinton emails are raw data.
"Amusingly (and as hinted at above), the Pentagon wants cyber enemies to know that the US is prepared to take the same stance on cyber attacks as it does on nuclear deterrence. Namely that America is building up its capabilities for defensive purposes only but will not hesitate to keep its offensive “options” open."
lol...they could pay government trolls a million dollars a year plus bonuses and it still will never equate to a quality product ;-)
This is probably just a statement of historical fact. There were forms of electronic attack used against the Soviet Union, particularly their pipeline control systems in the 1980s. Wrought havoc, I'm told.
Oh yeah, no doubt about it.
But it looks like they're gearing up for the whole cyber-war of "ideas" in which they're totally outgunned & outmanned.
Its kinda hard to accuse another government of inhibiting freedom & liberty when the government making the accusation has already been busted spying on its own citzens, forcing them to engage in commerce with crony-kleptocrats and droning innocent family members in order to get just one member.
Plus, government employees of any nation are notoriously stupid ;-)
Translation: We're about to lock this mother down....
Looks like they just added another great way to start a war. Of course, we were always pretty good at that.
Why is it fine and dandy if we do it, but an act of criminal barbarity if someone else does it?
Because psychopaths never think that they're the problem.
Because sheeple never think that they are the real target.
Because for millions of years the sheeple benefited from a power structure. Albeit, marginally.
Now, with positive sum economics and, for all practical purposes, threats that are imaginary, they are complete suckers.
That’s called the doctrine of Exceptionalism.
If it takes a single person pointing and clicking to cause a crash in the markets against all those 'sophisticated ' HFTs and algos, and a country like North Korea represents a major threat, the doctrine of exceptionalism is probably closer to delusion. Or lies.
DavidC
It took Obama six years to hire a cabinet member with some smarts. Ashton Carter years ago worked for a government agency called "The Office of Technology Assessment" an agency that did research for Congress and helped them craft laws as they relate to technologies. Several years ago our brilliant folks in DC decided they were smart enough and stopped funding it, so it exists in name only.
What a bunch of bone heads. Carter has roots in physics so he won't be another cabinet member suffering from "The Sebelius Syndrome" with whacked out perceptions and awful public displays of such. Sebelius was so public she got the name but many more suffer from this syndrome, i.e Mary Jo White over at the SEC. These folks seem to just pick out what ever perception flies around in their heads and run with it. Especially with technology issues, the tech world laughs their asses off a of the time and just moves on.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/secretary-sebelius-at-hhs-resigns-wrong.html
I got my head bit off in 2009 when Sebelius was nominated when I said insurance companies will code all around her and dupe her persona to levels of being ridiculous like we've never seen...did I hit it:)
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html
I said same thing about Cordray over at the CFPB and he's right on par, doing a tiny bit of handling low hanging fruit as we all know the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is over this agency and he was probably hand picked by Citi. On that note, Senator Warren has been very graceful when speaking of the agency since they chose bone head Cordray over her running it, but she showed them in the long run.
Carter should really be the chief of staff instead of the other bubble heads in the cabinet and I think he's probably right on par here being balanced. Again he's the only one in that cabinet with something intelligent to say.
The US / NSA has been hacking into, stealing data, recording conversations etc, from countries around the world.
The US is the Biggest ever Cyber Terrorist.
Every country has a right to do the same to them.
Even individuals because they are snooping into the individuals personal data and conversations.
They have been using "The Offensive Weapon" and they do not own the world.
Pentagon Admits Cyberwarfare Plan For First Time http://news.sky.com/story/1470633/pentagon-admits-cyberwarfare-plan-for-first-time
we have to become criminals to protect you from other criminals.....but dont worry, we will NEVER use our superpowers against the 'murican people
and the US cyber soilders will be OUTSOURCED to India?
Who's got more to lose?
The level of reliance on technology in Iran, Russia, NK is a lot lower than in the West. If power goes down, people will burn wood. in the US, if the power goes down people will chuck a tantrum on Twitter such as "someone from the government has to fix this!" And the unions will keep tradespeople from other states to come into assistance. And the ghetto will rise and loot everything when the "hero" cops cower in their suburban homes.
In their ethereal pursuit for money and power, Americans abandoned their humanity. A nation of barbarians.
Pathetic.
Cyber-attack false flag against US power grid in 5,4,3, ...
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 Comedy / War Full Movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz-xSNYzzTY (1:48:58)
It's my understanding that a Cyber Squad is important not just for spying on possible threats, but for the ability to disable a military threat that uses any type of technology that can be disabled remotely via a Cyber Attack. For example, let's say Russia intercepts the US President's signal to launch nuclear weapons and vice versa these are things that need to be overseen on a daily basis. I like having a Cyber Squad to monitor these potential threats. It's like telling the opposition, "Go ahead build your weapons. We'll just disable them remotely because we can."
Talk about a program destined to be used against the American people, about 15-18 years... ago.
The US does not do defense.
I find much that my government does offensive already.
(Didn't need the reminder, thanks.)
Yeh and China just magically caught up to US weapons tech, they been at this since they realized they can spy and steal each others shit..
Turns out Russians and pretty good programmers and the Chinese never sleep, who'da'thunk'it......
If you continuously point a gun at people sooner or later you are going to have to shoot.
BB is just formalizing what Snowballs already told you.
Be ready.
not a day goes by when the us isnt attacking someone or thing. it is a business. and, we wonder why the entire world hates us.
That means anyone that owns a PC can be accused of being in possesion of a component of a WMD....or so it would appear.
Looks like they forgot to mention America as well for their False Flag campaigns.
It's hard to control the narrative when your the liar.