The New Face of War: A Picture of the Opening Salvo of a Potential New World War

For the last day or two most of us have noticed that the Internet is not behaving as the Internet should. Sites are going offline, slowing down, disappearing altogether for protracted periods of time. Even this site was taken offline for a fair amount of time last night, along with many of the other sites that deal with similar topics.

Those of us who are at least a little computer experienced or literate understand that events, like these, are usually caused by attacks known as Distributed Denial of Service attacks - or DDoS in shorthand. If robbery is the risk of owning a bank or a store - then DDoS is the equivalent for cyberspace.

For those who do not understand what a DDoS attack is, there are metaphors that can help. Imagine that you are home, alone, and that there are two doors in the house you are occupying. You hear a knock at the front door, so you get up to answer it - only to find nobody is there. At that exact same instant, there is a knock at the back door - so you run to it. Same thing.

Now repeat this process over and over, very rapidly, and keep adding more doors. Eventually you shut down and stop answering them at all or become so overwhelmed trying to answer them that you collapse.

Our metaphoric doors in this case are ports - parts of your computer that talk to and listen to the Internet. And the knocks are packets - the method that all those ones and zeroes travel through the lines to end up being Youtube videos on our screens.

In earlier threads I've discussed aspects of this subject from several different angles, particularly the militarization of what, fifteen or twenty years ago was really nothing more than a hobbyists toy - the idea of using packets to knock others offline. Back in those days our arsenals were metaphorically equal to six shooters. What exists today, in the form of large scale botnets, are more like digital nukes.

Here is a picture I just screen captured about twenty minutes ago - imagine all those dots and lines as missles and strike points because - effectively, that is exactly what they are.



Thumbnail to a larger version



Dear ATS reader, you are looking directly at Shock and Awe V.2. A weapon that can cripple and destroy infrastructure without killing a single blade of grass. Invisible missles that can shut entire nations down and keep the United States allegorical promise of "bombing a nation back to the stone age".

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you the new face of war.

What? You sat that sound ridiculous? Fair enough.

Imagine if you woke tomorrow with no electricity, phone, Internet, natural heating gas or cable. When you left the house you quickly discovered that every POS ( point of sale ) machine in the country was down ( cash registers, ATM's etc ). Then you slowly came to understand that every aspect of your financial life NOT on hard copy had simply disappeared. Money, property, medical insurance, prescriptions, etc.

How long could a society without infrastructure last before giving into the demands of the power behind such an attack? My guess is not very long at all. Starting over is not an option simply due to the logistics. A nation locked down by cyberwar is a nation powerless to be and the resources to fend off such an attack, ironically, have almost the same exact effect as the attack itself. It would shut it all down - to keep it secure.

While I am not suggesting we're there today. I am fairly convinced that we are seeing a large scale, active theater test of this concept - either by China upon the US or even the US upon itself.

And, yes, people will show up and one line this by saying that WW3 started in 1990 when we began bombing Iraq. To them I use a phrase that may be a quote, though, if so, I cannot recall who said it.... They might as well be throwing rocks on the other side...

This is the new atomic bomb. All of the attrition, none of the destruction.

Thanks for reading.

It may seem to be between "Nations" like the U.S. and China.

But I think it is an effort by a very powerful international organization.

If 2 or more "Nations" get caught up in this cyber war, who benefits?

What are the goals and objectives?

Nailed it Heff!

I believe we are seeing practice runs right now just to see if it can be accomplished and more importantly, how quickly.

China is not taking anymore crap, has emerged as a super power and is flexing its muscle.

The US has the same abilities of course. But many will see it as safe guarding the homeland. But when China is at it, it's an enemy attack.

So we see what can and will happen if the US tries to renege on their Debt to China. Go ahead...See what happens.

Peace

a reply to: Hefficide

The following phrase comes to my mind.

"There is no human problem that cannot be solved without the appropriate amount of high explosives."

The question is...

Is a DDOS attack actual justification for launching cruise missiles of some such?

The answer is a definite maybe.

originally posted by: TDawgRex
a reply to: Hefficide

The following phrase comes to my mind.

"There is no human problem that cannot be solved without the appropriate amount of high explosives."

The question is...

Is a DDOS attack actual justification for launching cruise missiles of some such?

The answer is a definite maybe.

If China takes the US Grid Down you can be certain that they will launch at China.

Peace

Absolutely excellent thread.

We really have no idea how insanely fragile modern society really is.

I am looking at the website live now and I see that St. Louis is on the receiving end of a lot of attacks right now from all over the globe! You would think it was the capital of the US in the war analogy you gave.

originally posted by: xuenchen
It may seem to be between "Nations" like the U.S. and China.

But I think it is an effort by a very powerful international organization.

If 2 or more "Nations" get caught up in this cyber war, who benefits?

What are the goals and objectives?

The absolute goals and objectives may not be obvious on the surface but you can be sure the end game is ALWAYS about money & Power.

What else gives TPTB their erections?

Peace

who needs an EMP when you can do effectively do the same sort of thing w out having to launch any hardware

It's not as though something cannot be done about it. No one will really care until some actual damage is done, if then.

originally posted by: majesticgent
I am looking at the website live now and I see that St. Louis is on the receiving end of a lot of attacks right now from all over the globe! You would think it was the capital of the US in the war analogy you gave.

If there was a DDoS attack on all of Washington DC i don't think anyone in the US would care.

a reply to: majesticgent

This happens to be in St Louis.

originally posted by: majesticgent
I am looking at the website live now and I see that St. Louis is on the receiving end of a lot of attacks right now from all over the globe! You would think it was the capital of the US in the war analogy you gave.

That's been going on for the past two days. Must be one hell of a server farm there.

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: majesticgent

This happens to be in St Louis.

I wouldn't think that was it. I thought it would be a bunch of script kiddies and maybe some serious players doing DDoS attacks on St. Louis city and county websites for the entire Ferguson ordeal.

Would be interesting if that's what they were attacking though.

a reply to: Hefficide

scary really....so much of society is now so dependent on computers.......they dont even have to shut it all down...there would be enough chaos with just taking down the traffic systems...if the trucks do not get to the supermarkets that would be enough to cause great panic and that would lead to violence and anarchy

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: majesticgent
I am looking at the website live now and I see that St. Louis is on the receiving end of a lot of attacks right now from all over the globe! You would think it was the capital of the US in the war analogy you gave.

If there was a DDoS attack on all of Washington DC i don't think anyone in the US would care.

Yeah that's to be expected.

In the OP I mentioned nations and Xuenchen pointed out that things can get blurrier than that. Which is true. Mindlessly surfing a minute ago I found this which serves to remind us that Mega-Corporations, in this day and age are, essentially, nations unto themselves:

9. Sony Pictures Entertainment is fighting back.

The studio is reportedly using a hacking technique to stop – or at least slow – the spread of its stolen emails released by the hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace. Sony has employed a company to issue a counterattack against websites offering files containing its emails, Re/code reported. The measure, called a denial-of-service attack, involves using hundreds of computers in Asia to flood the sites’ servers with requests, which essentially paralyzes the servers and forces them to deliver empty files.

Studios often use the technique to stop pirated copies of its movies from being downloaded.

Source

The article also disusses that movie studios are collaborating in something called "Operation Goliath" - which is basically a privatized effort to destroy the open internet using copyright infringement as the means of leveraging that into law.

So, are we seeing a war, war games, or a private company waging war against a Nation? Whatever the case, it's paradigm shifting.

a reply to: Hefficide

a reply to: xuenchen

Y2K bug maybe
or
Northeast blackout of 2003 bug
or maybe
Chicago...Detroit...London...and don't forget Iran issues with Stuxnet

Power Restored in Detroit After Outage Closes Schools, Snarls Traffic
abcnews.go.com...

Power has been fully restored to Detroit customers, hours after a cable snafu knocked out power to much of the beleaguered city, the mayor's office said this afternoon.

The outage create plenty of hassles for city residents, as students were dismissed from schools early, traffic lights were knocked out and even one firehouse was unable to open its doors.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the failure was caused by the aging infrastructure of a city that just emerged from bankruptcy. He said when one power cable failed, power was rerouted to a second cable which also failed. In order to not overload the power grid, Duggan said the entire system was shut down.

The cable belonged to Detroit Public Lighting, according to Homeland Security officials. Detroit Edison provides power to much of the Detroit area, but the older downtown grid is operated by the Detroit Public Lighting.

The mayor warned Detroit residents similar blackouts could continue to happen as the electrical grid is fully revamped and Detroit Edison takes over full operation of the city.

Multiple municipal buildings including the City County Building, the Joe Louis arena where the Detroit Red Wings play, the Detroit City Airport were affected according to ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

Another power outage this morning at Joe Louis Arena. Maybe they didn't pay their bill. pic.twitter.com/voxvjc8tZJ

— Bob Duff (@asktheduffer) December 2, 2014

London's Air Meltdown and the Global Power of Travel Hubs
www.businessweek.com...

The southern runway at London's Heathrow Airport
The air traffic control glitch that snarled flights around London on Friday reaffirms the city's critical role in global airline service, yet another example of how an unexpected outage at a single hub in the air-travel network can have cascading consequences.

London airspace was severely restricted Friday afternoon after an equipment malfunction at a control center in Swanwick, in central England. The unspecified computer glitch led to thousands of flight delays across Europe. "U.K. airspace has not been closed, but airspace capacity has been restricted in order to manage the situation," NATS, the nation's air traffic control service, said in a statement. At 4:30 p.m. local time, about 90 minutes after the outage began, London's main international airport, Heathrow, started allowing some flights to depart. Only about 14 flights took off from London's six major airports between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., according to data collected by Flightradar24, an airline tracking service.

The latest episode of aerial gridlock comes less than three months after a similar outage in Chicago. In that case, a suicidal worker set a fire at a Federal Aviation Administration radar facility in Aurora, Ill., southwest of Chicago, closing the airspace at one of the world's busiest air-traffic control centers and wreaking havoc at Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway airports.

a reply to: Hefficide

Then if you haven't seen this it will interest you, the author makes some powerful points

www.ted.com...

In the 1970s and 1980s, a generous spirit suffused the Internet, whose users were few and far between. But today, the net is ubiquitous, connecting billions of people, machines and essential pieces of infrastructure — leaving us vulnerable to cyber-attack or meltdown. Internet pioneer Danny Hillis argues that the Internet wasn't designed for this kind of scale, and sounds a clarion call for us to develop a Plan B: a parallel system to fall back on if — or when — the Internet crashes

a reply to: majesticgent

Super interesting read... however I do not see China performing an attack on us in any fashion. Last week they surpassed the United States in raw purchasing power. Their economy is officially larger than ours... It is almost certainly a test of capability. If any foreign power is to be responsible it would more than likely be Russia.