Cyber War

The clean war? – In their 1985 novel WarDay, Whitley Strieber and Jim Kunetka explored the results of a possible limited nuclear war and found that while it was likely that the human race would survive, we would find ourselves in a much more limited world. Now the Pentagon is exploring the possibility of a cyber war. However, given the fact that so much of the world’s information is stored on computers, we may not survive that one well either.

The August 28th edition of the Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima reports that the military is trying to develop ways to knock out part (or all) of an enemy’s computer network. They are looking for tools to tools that would allow them to “attack and exploit adversary information systems” and “deceive, deny, disrupt, degrade and destroy” their information and information systems. For instance, it’s well known that a lot of Al Quaeda recruitment is done through the internet. However, the Pentagon wants to do this without violating international laws.

Nakashima quotes Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command, as saying, “We have to have offensive capabilities, to, in real time, shut down somebody trying to attack us.”

These techniques could also be used defensively. Nakashima quotes Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III as saying, “We need to be able to protect our networks, and we need to be able to retain our freedom of movement on the worldwide networks.”

At least this will be safer than the wars we’ve BEEN fighting lately.One war WE’RE always fighting is the war to keep this wonderful website alive, and we’re going to have to recruit every single one of you in order to do it. The next time you sip a mug of coffee while you fire up your computer, think how much you’d miss us if we were gone and subscribe today (it costs less than a latte a WEEK!)

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