U.S. Army kick-starts cyberwar machine

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/22/cyberwar.machine.idg/index.html


November 22, 2000
Web posted at: 9:35 a.m. EST (1435 GMT)

by Ellen Messmer

(IDG) -- The U.S. military has a new mission: Be ready to launch a
cyberattack against potential adversaries, some of whom are
stockpiling cyberweapons.

Such an attack would likely involve launching massive distributed
denial-of-service assaults, unleashing crippling computer viruses or
Trojans, and jamming the enemy's computer systems through electronic
radio-frequency interference.

An order from the National Command Authority - backed by President
Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen - recently instructed
the military to gear up to wage cyberwar.

The ability of the U.S. to conduct such warfare "doesn't exist today,"
according to a top Army official speaking at a conference in
Arlington, Va., last week.

"We see three emerging threats: ballistic missiles, cyberwarfare and
space control," said Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, deputy commander in
chief at U.S. Space Command, which was recently assigned the task of
creating a cyberattack strategy. "Cyberwarfare is what we might think
of as attacks against digital ones and zeros."

Anderson spoke about the Space Command's cyberwarfare responsibilities
at the National Strategies and Capabilities for a Changing World
conference. The event was organized by the Institute for Foreign
Policy Analysis, Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy and the U.S. Army. The conference attracted military top
brass and international diplomats.

Anderson told attendees that the U.S. Space Command, the agency in
charge of satellite communications, has begun to craft a computer
network attack strategy. This strategy would detail actions to be
followed by the Unified Commanders in Chief (CINC) if the president
and the secretary of defense order a cyber strike. The CINCs are
senior commanders in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines deploying
U.S. forces around the world.

The information-warfare strategy will be detailed in a defense plan
called "OPLAN 3600" that Anderson said will require "unprecedented
cooperation with commercial enterprises and other organizations."

There's no set deadline for completing OPLAN 3600, Anderson told
Network World. But he noted that other countries, including Russia,
Israel and China, are further along in building their
information-warfare capabilities.

Anderson said the U.S. may end up with a new type of weaponry for
launching massive distributed denial-of-service attacks and computer
viruses. "The Chinese recently indicated they are already moving along
with this," he added.

In addition to the possibility of cybercombat between nations, the
military acknowledges that terrorists without the backing of any
country can potentially use cyberweapons to disrupt U.S.
telecommunications or banking systems that are largely electronic.

That's one reason the U.S. Space Command is joining with the FBI to
build an information-warfare strategy.

"This requires a close relationship between military and law
enforcement," said Michael Vatis, an FBI official who also spoke at
the conference. He noted that the FBI will have to help determine if
any cyberattack suffered by U.S. military or business entities calls
for a military or law enforcement response.

"The Internet is ubiquitous. It allows attacks from anywhere in the
world. Attackers can loop in from many different Internet providers,"
said Vatis, who noted that a cyberattack can include espionage using
computer networks.

"It could start across the street but appear to be coming from China.
And something that might look like a hacker attack could be the
beginning of cyberwarfare," he added.

Vatis said the growing bullets-and-guns conflict in the Middle East
between Israel and the Palestinians, with Islamic supporters
elsewhere, is being accompanied by cyberattacks from each side against
the other. It's serious enough, he said, that the FBI issued an alert
about it to the U.S. Space Command, giving U.S. forces warning that
the action on the cyber front could affect them, too.

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