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For All The Cyberwar Talk, Turns Out There Have Been Fewer Attacks On The Pentagon's Network
from the cyberlull dept
For all the recent talk of "cyberwar," with particular emphasis on the idea that hackers in foreign countries were bombarding US gov't and military institutions with constant internet attacks, it now turns out that "incidents of malicious cyber activity" against the Pentagon have been on the decline this year. There still have been plenty of attempts to breach the network, but it's a much lower number than in the past. And that seems to contradict what Pentagon officials have been saying.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who's been leading the charge for why the Pentagon should be in charge of cybersecurity, recently claimed that the frequency was increasing exponentially. Except that's not true, apparently. The NSA, who is the main group within the Defense Department that wants to handle cybersecurity, apparently had its boss specifically (falsely) claim that he was "alarmed by the increase, especially this year." Of course, there are still plenty of attacks -- no one is denying that, but it's even more evidence that the folks looking to use this to gain more power are clearly exaggerating what's going on.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who's been leading the charge for why the Pentagon should be in charge of cybersecurity, recently claimed that the frequency was increasing exponentially. Except that's not true, apparently. The NSA, who is the main group within the Defense Department that wants to handle cybersecurity, apparently had its boss specifically (falsely) claim that he was "alarmed by the increase, especially this year." Of course, there are still plenty of attacks -- no one is denying that, but it's even more evidence that the folks looking to use this to gain more power are clearly exaggerating what's going on.
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From the Rampantly Paranoid Department:
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@2
there used to be a hole for over 7 years....that's all i'm saying on a USA blog
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Doublespeak/RIAA = Coincidence?
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Re: @2
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Fortunately, all of this does seem a bit premature since "cyber security" protocols is a basic research study being examined under the auspices of a DARPA program that is using the collective research and engineering expertise of both Johns Hopkins and Lockheed Martin.
I take some measure of solace in DARPA's participation since it is one of the very few federal agencies noted to be at the cutting edge of research into various projects that have led to many of the research advances that have morphed into the development of methods and equipment that today we as a nation take for granted, such as the important role it played in the development of the ARPANET.
At the same time, DARPA has in my experience been one of the very few federal agencies that serve the very important role of honest broker.
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You gotta admit, though, that "cyber-terrorism" has a nice ring to it. It gets the attention of media and legislators who will go on and on about it while quoting the "experts" that thought the whole thing up.
But what can they do when the data says the Pentagon is getting attacked fewer times now than before?
Take credit for it!
Then tell legislators and the media that they need more cash to keep the trend line going down. Never mind that they've done all of nothing.
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