[LINK] WP: The Pentagon is turned on by eWar

[grove at zeta.org.au]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:

> On 11/04/2012 9:04 AM, Roger Clarke wrote:
>> [Dr Evenstrangerlove? 'C'mon, let's eNuke them Commies!'.
>>
>> [The US is a seriously creepy country.]
>>
>>
>> Mission possible: Pentagon ramps up development of cyberweapons
>>
>
> Maybe the USA could spend a bit of money making sure it's government
> systems are not so fragile that they easily fall over given a little
> push. It's not much use having macho cyberweapons if your defences are
> vulnerable.


So are they still using Microsoft systems for this sort of thing? 
Why doesn't the US govt invest in their own GovOS platform that could 
be designed by the NSA to be secure out of the box and with only a few 
compatibility layers (eg for doc exchange and so on) to stop virus propagation
and infitration?    Or perhaps GovOS could be something run on their network 
switches to dynamically block attacks or exploits etc.

I am sure the money saved on MS licenses could fund an R&D division to do this, 
instead of spending buckets of money on substandard software that requires 
large teams to support and maintain it.....


rachel


>
> For Commerce unit hit by computer virus, hardship of being unplugged has
> upside
> Washington Post
> By Lisa Rein
> April 9
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-agency-a-loss-of-technology-has-had-down--and-upsides/2012/04/08/gIQAvpAY5S_story_1.html
>
>
> The virus struck
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/commerce-agencys-system-infected-by-virus-may-be-victim-of-cyber-attack/2012/02/02/gIQAViHWlQ_story.html>
> in an e-mail 81 days ago, flagged by a federal team
> <http://www.us-cert.gov/>that monitors cyberthreats. The target was a
> small job-development bureau in the Commerce Department
> <http://www.eda.gov/>. The infiltration was so vicious it put Commerce?s
> entire computer network at risk.
>
>

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
    "The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum." - Finagle's Law