ADJ_ust

9-30-96. NYP: 
 
   "National Security Experts Plan for Wars Whose Targets and 
   Weapons Are All Digital." 
 
      Is the threat real, or is this just another way to win 
      scarce funds? 
 
      Military and intelligence officials believe that enemy 
      nations, terrorists and criminal groups either already 
      have the capability to mount information warfare strikes 
      or soon will. Criminals are quickly progressing beyond 
      the vandalism and petty theft associated with teen-aged 
      hackers and into robbery and extortion schemes ranging 
      up to millions of dollars, corporate executives and 
      private investigators say. 
 
      Others reply that the worst threats mentioned are mostly 
      speculation. "Information warfare is a risk to our 
      nation's economy and defense," said Martin Libicki, a 
      senior fellow at the National Defense University. "But 
      I believe we will find ways to cope with these attacks, 
      adjust and shake them off, just as we do to natural 
      disasters like hurricanes." 
 
   ----- 
 
   http://jya.com/adjust.txt  (14 kb) 
 
   ADJ_ust

John Young wrote:
>    9-30-96. NYP:
>    "National Security Experts Plan for Wars Whose Targets and
>    Weapons Are All Digital."
>       Is the threat real, or is this just another way to win
>       scarce funds?
>       Military and intelligence officials believe that enemy
>       nations, terrorists and criminal groups either already
>       have the capability to mount information warfare strikes
>       or soon will. Criminals are quickly progressing beyond
>       the vandalism and petty theft associated with teen-aged
>       hackers and into robbery and extortion schemes ranging
>       up to millions of dollars, corporate executives and
>       private investigators say.
>       Others reply that the worst threats mentioned are mostly
>       speculation. "Information warfare is a risk to our
>       nation's economy and defense," said Martin Libicki, a
>       senior fellow at the National Defense University. "But
>       I believe we will find ways to cope with these attacks,
>       adjust and shake them off, just as we do to natural
>       disasters like hurricanes."

If they wanna bombard the net, fine.  Just as long as they don't use one 
of those HAARP gizmos, like the ground-penetrating radar, and turn it 
onto a wide area, so everyone in, say, San Jose loses all their hard 
disk info and floppy backups.  I don't know much about non-magnetic 
technology, and so I wonder what the options are for secure backup, 
short of buying an expensive safe or a spot in an underground vault?

At 11:52 PM -0700 9/30/96, Dale Thorn wrote:

>If they wanna bombard the net, fine.  Just as long as they don't use one
>of those HAARP gizmos, like the ground-penetrating radar, and turn it
>onto a wide area, so everyone in, say, San Jose loses all their hard
>disk info and floppy backups.  I don't know much about non-magnetic
>technology, and so I wonder what the options are for secure backup,
>short of buying an expensive safe or a spot in an underground vault?

It's remarkably hard to erase modern magnetic media. (High coercivity means
field strengths have to be high, and magnetic heads are typically very
close to the media.)

No HERF, HAARP, or other Buck Rogers gizmo is going to even partially erase
floppy disks, let alone Winchester disks inside cases (their own cases,
plus the  outer enclosures). RF leakage is not at all the same thing as
kiloguass magnetic fields (and, more critically, the flux reversals per
unit length).

What the damage vectors might be, such as electrostatic discharge
("sparks"), or dielectric breakdown of oxides, or latchup, are covered in
various conferences, such as the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects
Conference.

Personally, I think there's a lot of hype about this whole "infowar" thing.
Sure, security measures and vulnerabilities always need to be looked at,
but a lot of the rhetoric is being driven by journalists looking for lead
stories.

--Tim May



We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."