AFF/CYBERWAR: CYBER ATTACK WILL CAUSE MASS DESTRUCTION

CYBER WAR SNEAK ATTACK COULD PARALYZE THE NATION AND HOLD IT HOSTAGE

NEWT GINGRICH, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, April, 2001 Information Security SECTION: SECURITY PERSPECTIVES; Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Threats of Mass Disruption //VT2002acsln

Additionally, there's a real danger that a powerful nation will believe it can create the cyberspace equivalent of a Pearl Harbor sneak attack. It's conceivable in the next 25 years that a sophisticated adversary (such as a small country with cyberwarfare resources) will decide that it can blackmail the United States into accepting its demands by paralyzing our communications and financial systems.

This is not science fiction. This is the natural consequence of the emerging technologies that have been, to date, making our lives and nation better.

A CYBER WAR PEARL HARBOR WILL HAPPEN

NEWT GINGRICH, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, April, 2001 Information Security SECTION: SECURITY PERSPECTIVES; Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Threats of Mass Disruption //VT2002acsln

A cyber Pearl Harbor is not a question of if, but when.

DESCRIPTION OF A TEST CYBER WAR AGAINST THE USA SHOWS SERIOUS DANGERS AND VULNERABILITIES

JAMES ADAMS, National Security Agency Advisory Board, May, 2001 / June, 2001 Foreign Affairs SECTION: ESSAYS; Pg. 98 HEADLINE: Virtual Defense //VT2002acsln

The U.S. military's vulnerability to cyber-attack became clear in June 1997, when the Joint Chiefs of Staff launched an exercise code-named Eligible Receiver to test the nation's computer defenses. Their scenario imagined a military crisis on the Korean Peninsula that forced Washington to rapidly bolster South Korean forces with troops and aircraft. Thirty-five men and women from the National Security Agency (NSA) were split into four teams, three in the United States and one on a ship in the Pacific, to simulate hackers hired by North Korea to subvert the American operation. These hackers received no advance intelligence about U.S. information networks and could use only publicly available equipment and information. Even though they were not allowed to break U.S. law, they could use any computer hacking programs they could find freely available on the Internet. (Some 30,000 Web sites post hacker codes, which can be downloaded to break passwords, crash systems, and steal data.)

Over the course of the next two weeks, the teams used the commercial computers and hacking programs they downloaded from the Internet to simultaneously break into the power grids of nine American cities and crack their 911 emergency systems. This exercise proved that genuine hackers with malicious intent could, with a couple of keystrokes, have turned off these cities' power and prevented the local emergency services from responding to the crisis.

Having ensured civilian chaos and distracted Washington, the NSA agents then attacked 41,000 of the Pentagon's 100,000 computer networks and got in to 36. Only two of the attacks were detected and reported. The agents were thus able to roam freely across the networks, sowing destruction and distrust wherever they went. They could, for example, have sent truck headlights to an F-16 fighter squadron requesting missiles or rerouted aircraft fuel to a port rather than an air base. The hackers also managed to infect the human command-and-control system with a paralyzing level of mistrust. Orders that appeared to come from a commanding general were fake, as were bogus news reports on the crisis and instructions from the civilian command authorities. As a result, nobody in the chain of command, from the president on down, could believe anything. This group of hackers using publicly available resources was able to prevent the United States from waging war effectively.

CYBER WAR RISKS SMALL EFFORTS WITH HUGE CONSEQUENCES IN HIGH TECH BLACKMAIL

NEWT GINGRICH, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, April, 2001 Information Security SECTION: SECURITY PERSPECTIVES; Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Threats of Mass Disruption //VT2002acsln

The reality of small efforts leading to enormous consequences creates a new and previously inconceivable national defense problem. The threats now facing the United States are much broader in scope than we have ever faced in our history. A lone fanatic, a criminal organization, a small terrorist group, a state-sponsored terrorist group or an aggressive foreign adversary could manipulate world markets or engage in high-tech blackmail. The diverse nature of these threats makes our traditional means of deterrence and response unworkable.

CYBER WAR THREATS CAN END USA ROLE AS A SUPERPOWER

JAMES ADAMS, National Security Agency Advisory Board, May, 2001 / June, 2001 Foreign Affairs SECTION: ESSAYS; Pg. 98 HEADLINE: Virtual Defense //VT2002acsln

The Bush administration has an opportunity to redefine the national security environment. The threat of cyber-attack demands leadership and creative thinking that will produce new solutions. If the administration remains stuck in the outdated, Cold War paradigm of conflict, U.S. status as a military superpower will be jeopardized by the new players of the cyber-world. The United States must neutralize the asymmetric advantage of waging virtual war.