The Netwar between Georgia and Russia is interesting. Not the least of which for the way language is being exploited to put the other side in a negative light (otherwise known as propaganda). But there’s an unrelated article on network warfare you may find interesting:
With a jailbroken, iPhone attackers can use this to find out information about a network using just a phone. Gathering information or footprinting is important to have when wanting to attack a secure network. According to Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray, and George Kurtz (1999), “systematic footprinting of an organization will allow attackers to create a complete profile of an organization’s security posture”(p. 5). They go on to say “Footprinting is necessary to systematically and methodically ensure that all pieces of information related to the aforementioned technologies are identified”( Kurtz et al., 1999, p6). Footprinting can involve scanning tools such as Metasploit, Nmap, Whois, tcpdump and others.
Read the whole thing at the blog of MountainRunner friend Sam Liles.
With all these techniques, gathering information from a wireless network has gone from carrying a laptop to using the device that one mostly already has, smart phones. Peter Grabosky and Russell G. Smith say, “In 1995, 250,000 smart phones were sold in the United States” (p.6). Two-hundred and fifty thousands smart phones were sold in 1995 and today who many young adults do not want an mp3 player with build-in wireless card that can be used to run attacks against networks because they saw it on You Tube. You Tube is providing people with the knowledge to unlock there smart phone and use it for there own good well or terrorize someone else’s job.
YouTube… not just the place to watch funny cats, but the DIY-center for propaganda and mobilizing for and facilitating network-centric warfare.
Alex Chavez is the author of that post on my blog and one of my students. Recently Alex picked up an EEPC with a flash drive that he is looking to see what kind of highly deniable forensically resistant capability he can create in a flash based system. This next semester he plans on updating his iPhone information to include the new 3G iphone with GPS.One of the issues we have had is getting people to realize how easy some of these techniques are. Seeing the technical issues as fairly mundane as a scientist and researcher I am intensely interested in the spectrum of information operations and see cyber space as it’s own terrain in the spectrum of conflict. Cyber warfare maligned as anecdotal to the conflict spectrum is a force multiplier and communication control mechanism. Those who have the high ground of command and control own the cyber terrain.
In the Georgia war we see what might have been a capable national Army folding before a better prepared adversary in the C2 domain. Though lots of tanks have a spectacular effect too.