Pentagon Secretly Goes To War With The Internet

Information is key to winning battles. Hell you can win a battle without firing a shot by using information.

Hmm, possible..

but in my mind i think the US was a little surprised at its vulnerability when all of a sudden, the pentagon and other government aspects all of a sudden had a chinese intruder.

Plus,
It seems other nations, australia included have experienced CHINESE attacks.

....Surely, if someone was IT savvy enough to be able to trace something through to a country, they'd be able to see through what ever smoke and mirrors the US setup to make it ''appear'' as if it came from someone else?..

reply to post by Agit8dChop


I couldn't agree more. It's scary to think that all this classified information could be accesed by an enemy...

I see two major issues here that do need to be addressed.

1. Cyber attacks: As has already been said, the computers in this country are absolutely barraged with daily attacks. I had my firewall set to alert me to any suspiscious activity it was blocking. After less than a wekk I turned that alert feature off and allowed it to just do its job in silence and secrecy because what I was seeing was chilling me to the bone. That was 7 or 8 years ago, I can only imagine what it is like today. There I sat, just your average redneck dork with an internet connection and I was getting attempts every few minutes from Russia, China, Mexico, not to mention the abhorent number of access attempts made against my PC from within the borders of the US. It's out of control and something seriously has needed to be done for quite awhile now.

2. Libel, slander, and fabrications. The internet has for far too long allowed people to abuse the freedom of speech in such a way that truly is an affront to the intentions of the First Ammendment. I'm not even referring to issues like speculating over the various 9/11 conspiracies, either (though most of those would fall into the fabrications category with a generous dollop of slander). I'm talking about people ruining other people's lives or attempting to do so through malicious electronic smear campaigns, all done annonymously and from a distance. Just like the 1st Amm. doesn't allow you to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, it shouldn't allow you to post false profiles of people where you (masquerading as them) claim all manner of deviancies and sins. I'd also argue that a large percentage of the fear mongering pertaining to such things as "Bush is destroying the Constitution" fall under this, so in my view some folks on ATS should be investigated. Certainly when you have somebody posting something like "Bush should be shot" it falls outside the realm of 1st ammendment protection. The fact that these online hate mongers haven't been rounded up should serve as pretty solid proof this administration is nowhere near the fascist regime some have painted it as.

it's a shame really. 5000 USD spent a minute in iraq, got know how much more on america's weapons. when you think about it. america is not actualy very succesful at war. the only succesful war was their civil war. but yet they spend so much on their WMD's. when all that could be spent to better their country. there's a saying that history always repets itself. look at the nazi's and their use of propoganda and brainwashing and look at america's propoganda. this 30 billion dollar project jus looks like another attempt to complete their control over information and the media.

the only thing i could possibly say that the american govt has done well if they do intend to continue like the nazi's is that they have bases in many countries through out the world in which they can launch their attack. but anyway thats just my conspiracy theory.

still there are a few computer systems that are un-hackable. its just that the pentagon probably has a mass software/hardware deal with microsoft hence they are so easy to hack.

Instead of spending money like it's going out of fashion - money they don't have - shouldn't the USA be trying to pay back the TRILLIONS it already owes?

Or is paying back debt something that doesn't apply to a superpower?

If you dont think that the government has not been doing this for many years already, then you are very naive. If you hear about it in the mainstream media, then its been going on for years.

Also, enemy hackers do not get classified information from the gov't networks....well not unless someone intentionally puts them on the unclassified network, and even then the hackers would have to know it was there, so that means its an inside job. It would just be easier to take whatever it is home and email it. No one is getting access to the classified networks that is not supposed to be there.

They pretty much control the press,so why not control the internet?everyone that doesn't agree with the Government is labeled a radical,so why not get control of everything,sounds like another justification

in order to prepare for all out cyber warfare by using it to conduct mock online battles with realistic info-warriors.

info-wars?

Why not just call it what it is : Propaganda and Lies.


Oh well, when the administration starts injecting their lies onto the internet, and scanning our responses... we'll just screw with them back.


Start reporting everything you see being loaded into politicial houses... find out where the sons, daughters, and parents of the politicians you don't like live, and start talking about how you saw them bringing explosives into the house (propane), along with allot of electronic equipment. Just say it arbitrarily on the internet... not as an accusation, but more as a passing thought.

It will be fun to see how many times politicians get pissed off cause their families are being harassed by the government.

It will be even more fun to know that they're getting the wrong guys, because they were spying on us!

Won't take long before the politicians find out that all the searches came from the internet branch of the military... and the whole project will get shut down.

Come on! Let's make a game of this!

Go get an alias on a .alt newsgroup, and start talking about those explosives and electronics you saw being unloaded at your local politicians son's house.

Then videotape it, put it on youtube. That'll make em turn red.


The internet stays free!
The reason we use it is because it's not oppressed by the government.

We could always start a new network... and simply leave the US out of it. But lets give them a chance at least.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by johnsky]

reply to post by Rasputin13


As a Defense standard, yes. I remember hearing how easy it was to hack into some of the pentagon's, CIA, etc.'s files and databases. I hope they fix this problem.

But, I doubt this is what this new "warfare" is about. Why not just say, "we're beefing up our security for these agencies' online systems" rather than declaring a "war" on the internet?

I fear this is more about being able to shut down "domestic threat's" funding systems, and means of travel and also to influence the public's opinion with pro-anti-terrorism (yes, that word does make sense - and it's not an oxymoron) propaganda.

The internet is one of the easiest and most used for communication by anyone with an agenda good and bad.I would hope that finding the bad will prevail. A group out of Pakistan in the early 90's hacked into three of the major ISP's and darn near took over and crashed the network. It was a mistake on they're part that stoped it. We got lucky that time. I supposed its been tried a few other times but we haven't been privy to that info. Its a necessary evil to have to somehow monitor the traffic. Its going to get interesting.
Zindo

PS. Most of the hacks into government information sources has come from links into and out of our academic partners.

[edit on 5/7/2008 by ZindoDoone]

As many erudite and experienced people here, I would have expected a slightly different range of comments.

Many IT Pros know that 'cyber-attacks' are an irrelevancy in a system that is not exposed to the 'common trunk' of the internet. NSA has known this since before there even was an internet. They have never been 'hacked' because they have never been 'on-line' to get hacked. Yet somehow they function. Is it magic? No.

The Pentagon and other such government agencies are exposed because they prefer to foster 'business' by purchasing and installing the standard crap networking and networking 'services adminstration' as 'contracted' by the lowest bidder. Defense contractors are the REASON we are weak, they have no interest in installing a rock-solid system that wouldn't require constant babysitting. And the procurement types have no incentive to demand that the systems they purchase and the services they contract comply with the 'spirit' of the RFQ.

China's ability (or any other countries you can imagine) to 'hack' into our systems has nothing to do with some magical strategy or genius of hacking; it has to do with general incompetence at the level of the professionals managing the security of the network.

Anyone remotely familiar with the evolution of computer hardware and a fundamental knowledge of machine code can tell you, there is no such thing as a commercially available 'hack proof' system. Unless the systems hardware is custom designed and isolated from the data stream - it is possible to hack in and will probably fall prey to any motivated hacker who understands the concept of 'stack overflow' and error handling protocols.

This 'internet' bogeyman is one of those infuriating 'shadowy ill-defined' enemies created by those who have NO understanding of internet security. I can't believe that security experts can sit there with a straight face and operate on the principle that our most sensitive information and crucial computer support simply must be Windows/Cisco compliant! Even Novel would be a better choice (but not by much) if you want to hamstring the hackers that are out there.

This is NOT the rocket science that the talking heads want you to think it is (maybe it is to them, but then, they are just 'actors' following a script.)

I offer this analogy for those of you who will insist that this is a real threat. I have a cool looking car, she's beautiful, shiny and has lot's of desirable features. "It's gonna get stolen!" you say, better lock it up, put in an alarm, get guard dogs, hire some thugs to watch it..., maybe... but...

What if that car had a custom installed manual transmission with 9 forward and 4 reverse gears. How would you drive away with such a car if you can't make it go? What if it required a set of 3 keys to operate, each sequentially linked to a custom profile?

Get it? It's not our systems that are vulnerable, it's the platform they 'choose' to employ. Why the hell should the Pentagon's classified systems be linked to the internet? You think the Generals want to work from home? Isolate the system and you only have to worry about PHYSICAL security.

But then, what would you use as an excuse to repress internet communications?

reply to post by Maxmars


You said it much more eloquently than I. Just exactly right!!!
Zindo

reply to post by Maxmars


Superb post Maxmars. It's a shame that your brand of common sense doesn't seem to be shared by those who report this stuff in the media.

Have a star

I for one hopes the US goes down, because Im afraid of the society and world those maniacs will build otherwise.

You think you will be SAFER? The irony here is so obvious...


[edit on 7-5-2008 by Copernicus]

woohoo Copernicus, I have you one-upped already.

Let's just make Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe World Ruler over all men.

Rasputin13 has it right on except for one fact. There is no classified info on the internet, there are INTRANETS that contain this type of info. The two types of systems are physically separate and can't talk to one another (for obvious reasons). Again, I doubt seriously that the US Gvt really cares about what is being said on ATS.
Just my $.02
Flame retardant suit worn

reply to post by Copernicus


Dear Sir,
You are in dire need of milk and cokies and a nap!
Zindo

That I know of, there are 4 different networks being used by the military/government. 2 definitely cannot be touched by anyone who is not supposed to be there, 1 probably not and 1 that is just the regular internet, which has better firewalls than just about anywhere else.

Originally posted by AbsoluteLegend
reply to post by Agit8dChop

 

I couldn't agree more. It's scary to think that all this classified information could be accesed by an enemy...

And who exactly is the "enemy"?



9/11 Truther "terrorists"?



CHINA???


IRAQ???


Think about it.