CyberWar, Anyone?

Cyber Warfare has become a hot topic recently. The U.S. is in the process of reorganizing its Cyber Warfare defenses as well as pushing for increased offensive capabilities.

Some observers are convinced that North Korea is responsible for the recent series of DDOS attacks primarily targeted at the U.S. and South Korea. In particular Kevin Coleman, a prolific commentator on Cyber Warfare has some harsh comments about U.S. preparedness in this DoD Buzz column. To summarize: "1. The current U.S. defenses against cyber attack are woefully inadequate against even moderate level attacks as we have just experienced.

2. The fact that these attacks were well-coordinated, lasted as long as they did and were able to bring down a number of sites says more about the state of our defenses than the moderate rated offensive cyber capabilities of North Korea.

3. This clearly shows the need for the international agreement for cyber attack investigation cooperation that has been called for by many cyber warfare experts including me. These attacks were routed/launched through compromised computers in 16 countries.

4. Reports that the Department of Defense was not alerted to the attacks and found out through the media indicate that better coordination between DOD, DHS, DOJ and other government organizations as well as the private sector is critical in times of cyber attack and therefore must be improved and maintained.

5. There are unconfirmed reports for typically reliable sources that a South Korean intelligence agency has obtained documents ordering North Korean army units to start the cyber attack. If true, this could be the smoking gun! Once verified, that would open the way for retaliatory action."

DoD Buzz also has a recent story that suggests that the U.S. may have the ability to take out enemy SAMs with CyberWar techniques. Short article, so here's the full text:
"Cyber Can Kill SAMs
By Colin Clark Monday, July 6th, 2009 12:45 pm
Posted in Air, Cyber Security, International

Now that cyber command has been approved and it’s grown increasingly clear that the US will deploy offensive capabilities, I thought it was time to revisit recent comments by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz who said the US can kill advanced surface to air missiles without F-22s, F-35s or any other kinetic capability. In fact, Schwartz may have let some of the cat out of the bag when he told a Brookings Institution audience that the US possesses “the nascent capability” of taking down surface to air missile sites using offensive cyber methods.

[That's right. All those arguments about the F-22 being absolutely necessary because of its unrivalled effectiveness may be a lot less important than the plane's supporters thought. On top of that, one industry expert at the Paris Air Show said that the F-35 has a requirement that it be able to take out triple digit SAMs while the F-22 never did. That's not to say the F-22 isn't capable of it. It just means the plane wasn't designed to do it.]

I’ve been digging around since Schwartz made his very brief comment about the cyber capability. One cyber expert I spoke with was very unhappy about Schwartz’ comments, saying he had no business speaking about such capabilities outside of a classified environment. And no one else I spoke with – who deals with these issues in an operational environment – was willing to say anything about Schwartz’s comments.

I did come across this one interesting tidbit , a study by one of the Air Force research labs about just such capability. I tried calling and sending a couple of emails to the lab and never heard back. The reason may be that this really isn’t something the military is at all comfortable talking about yet. But this exercise study makes clear that portions of the Air Force are beginning to take offensive cyber attacks seriously. The heart of this effort was stated clearly. “For example an airbase has anti-aircraft artillery, radar coverage, and the ability to launch aircraft. Our interface enables us to enable, disable, and reduce the effectiveness of the capabilities. The capabilities of each individual asset are open to attack through cyber vectors,” the study notes."

A couple of points worth noting about the story; the quote attributed to General Schwartz about the U.S.'s "nascent capability" to defeat SAMs with Cyber Warfare does not appear in the transcript of the General's speech to the Brookings Institute. However, read the Generals remarks toward the bottom of page 20 of the transcript. Also some people within the defense community find the General's remarks very inappropriate.