Article on US Cyber abilities

[Peter1469]

A long but interesting article: (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/)

Alexander runs the nation’s cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US’s inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government’s forefinger. “What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks,” he said at a recent security conference in Canada. “I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in.”

[Peter1469]

A related article (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/10/inside_the_nsa_s_ultra_secret_china_hacking_group)

It turns out that the Chinese government's allegations are essentially correct. According to a number of confidential sources, a highly secretive unit of the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. government's huge electronic eavesdropping organization, called the Office ofTailored Access Operations, or TAO, has successfully penetrated Chinese computer and telecommunications systems for almost 15 years, generating some of the best and most reliable intelligence information about what is going on inside the People's Republic of China.

Hidden away inside the massive NSA headquarters complex at Fort Meade, Maryland, in a large suite of offices segregated from the rest of the agency, TAO is a mystery to many NSA employees. Relatively few NSA officials have complete access to information about TAO because of the extraordinary sensitivity of its operations, and it requires a special security clearance to gain access to the unit's work spaces inside the NSA operations complex. The door leading to its ultramodern operations center is protected by armed guards, an imposing steel door that can only be entered by entering the correct six-digit code into a keypad, and a retinal scanner to ensure that only those individuals specially cleared for access get through the door.

[waltky]

Marines lookin' fer a few good geeks...

Marines Forming New Cyberwarrior Unit
Mar 29, 2016 | The Marine Corps is standing up a new unit of cyberwarriors as the global battlefield evolves to include more and more computer networks.


The Marine Corps Cyberspace Warfare Group was activated Friday in a ceremony at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, a Marine Corps statement said. Its mission is to man, train and equip Marine cyberspace mission teams to perform both defensive and offensive operations in support of U.S. Cyber Command and Marine Forces Cyberspace Command.

The unit has "a few" cyber teams up and running, the statement said; however, it won't be fully operational until sometime next year. "We've always had the means to communicate and the means to protect that communication, but today we're in an environment where those methods are more and more reliant on a system of transmissions, routers and networks," the unit's commander, Col. Ossen D'Haiti, said in the statement. "So, the ability to protect that, the ability to control that and deny an adversary to interdict that, is crucial to command and control."


http://images.military.com/media/news/service/marine-cyberwarfare-804-ts600.jpg
Marines with Marine Corps Cyberspace Warfare Group prepare to post the guidon during an activation of command ceremony at Fort George G. Meade, Md.

Everything from power grids, banking, government operations to defense contractor weapons' plans have shifted online in the past few decades. That information is a tempting target for both state-sponsored hackers and criminal organizations that are becoming increasingly sophisticated at cybertheft.

During a town hall meeting with Okinawa Marines in November, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller lamented that China had stolen military secrets from the United States. "While we've been fighting, our adversaries, many of them in this part of the world -- pick one: China, North Korea, Iran, Russia -- what have they been doing? Making money, buying new gear, stealing all of our secrets," he said. "Ever look at all the Chinese equipment? What's it look like? It looks like our stuff. How is that? They stole our stuff, fair and square." The Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard are also actively recruiting cyber soldiers and standing up their own cyber units and programs.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/03/29/marines-forming-new-cyberwarrior-unit.html

[donttread]

A long but interesting article: (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/)

Alexander runs the nation’s cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US’s inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government’s forefinger. “What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks,” he said at a recent security conference in Canada. “I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in.”

Does anyone else see the real problem as you know "How could we be so stupid as develop a network we are highly dependent upon on a daily basis that we can't begin to protect?

[Ransom]

A long but interesting article: (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/all/)

Alexander runs the nation’s cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US’s inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government’s forefinger. “What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks,” he said at a recent security conference in Canada. “I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in.”


Actually the government is asking for help from the private sector. In much of this cyber security effort, human behavior becomes more the focus. Actually having cyber security knowledge K-12 through our public schools. Teaching passwords for example. Several conferences I've attended have universities there as well as governments and businesses, cyber attacks now so common, they're trying to convince business there are two types of businesses....ones who have already been hacked and know it...and those that have already been hacked and don't know it.