cyberwarfare
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DARPA setting up a $130 million 'virtual firing range' to help battle cyber attacks
The US government is serious about online security, just ask any one of its cyber commandos. Adding to its arsenal for battling the big bad hackers, Reuters reports that DARPA is working on a National Cyber Range, which would act a standalone internet simulation engine where digital warriors can be trained and experimental ideas tested out. Lockheed Martin and Johns Hopkins University are competing to provide the final system, with one of them expected to soon get the go-ahead for a one-year trial, which, if all goes well, will be followed by DARPA unleashing its techies upon the virtual firing range in earnest next year. The cost of the project is said to run somewhere near $130 million, which might have sounded a bit expensive before the recent spate of successful hacking attacks on high profile private companies, but now seems like a rational expenditure to ensure the nuclear missile codes and the people crazy enough to use them are kept at a safe distance from one another. DARPA has a pair of other cleverly titled cybersecurity schemes up its sleeve, called CRASH and CINDER, but you'll have to hit the source link to learn more about them.
Operation Cyber Storm III underway, makes digital certificates cool again
Fans of cyberwarfare (which we are, if only because we like to imagine that it looks like Battlezone) take note: following hot on the heels previous Cyber Storm I and II and Cyber ShockWave wargames, the Department of Homeland Security is sponsoring a little something called Cyber Storm III. Starting yesterday, the three-day exercise simulates more than 1,500 different types of attack, with a special emphasis on identities, trust relationships, and digital certificates. As Brett Lambo, director of Homeland Security's Cyber Exercise Program, told AFP, "we're kind of using the Internet to attack itself. At a certain point the operation of the Internet is reliant on trust -- knowing where you're going is where you're supposed to be." The exercise will test the National Cyber Incident Response Plan as well as the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. But you can breathe easily: the operation is focusing on defense, not offense (for now).
Charlie Miller and Kim Jong-Il could pwn the Internet with two years, $100 million
Well there's one thing we can say about Charlie Miller -- he sure is an ambitious rascal. When not busy exposing security holes in OS X, our fave security expert (aside from Angelina Jolie in Hackers, of course) has laid out a shocking expose based on the following premise: if Kim Jong-Il had a budget of $100 million and a timeline of two years could North Korea's de facto leader (and sunglasses model) take down the United States in a cyberwar? It seems that the answer is yes. Using a thousand or so hackers, "ranging from elite computer commandos to basic college trained geeks," according to AFP, the country could target specific elements of a country's infrastructure (including smart grids, banks, and communications) and create "beacheads" by compromising systems up to two years before they pulled the trigger. Speaking at DEFCON this weekend, Miller mentioned that such an attack could be carried out by anyone, although North Korea has a few advantages, including the fact that its infrastructure is so low tech that even destroying the entire Internet would leave it pretty much unscathed. That said, we're not worried in the least bit: if the diminutive despot brings down the entire Internet, how is he ever going to see Twilight: Eclipse?
Defense Department developing portable hacking device for soldiers
It's not exactly news that the Department of Defense is looking at ways to make hacking a more practical weapon, but it looks to really be stepping up its game with its latest project, which promises to make complicated attacks as simple as a few button presses. That would apparently be possible thanks to a slightly mysterious device that'd be small enough to carry around in a backpack, but powerful enough to do everything from breaking into a wireless network to hacking into SCADA (or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems (used at power plants, nuclear facilities, and the like). While complete details are obviously a bit light, the system would apparently be able to, for instance, map out the nodes in a wireless network, cause them to disconnect, and watch them come back online to identify weak spots. It would then present the "hacker" with various attack attributes that could simply be adjusted using sliders on a touchscreen. No word if the soldiers will also be rewarded with Achievements.[Via Softpedia]
Estonia networks slammed by possible Russian cyber attacks
We certainly hope you dig the flavor of Russia and Estonia blended together in the morning, as your News Brews is probably cranking the mixture out en masse after reports that Russia has been waging a "cyber war" on Estonia for the past few weeks. Reportedly, Estonia's well-regarded networks have been "under heavy attack," saying that Russians are behind the mass outages of its state and commercial websites. Currently, Nato and EU officials are attempting to track down the culprits, and while Moscow has reportedly "denied any involvement in the internet attacks on its neighbor," relations between the two haven't exactly been rosy of late. Don't fret Estonia, if things get too bad, there's always Sealand.[Via Guardian]