Wikileaks vs US--the first -overt- internet battle by a nation state?

[HereSince1628]

I know nothing about cyberspace, but I wonder what this action against Wikileaks is revealling about the nature of cyber warfare. I think that most of us assume cyberwar has been done over the last decade (US vs 'the terrorists', China vs its dissidents, etc.) but that it was mostly about surveillance that was used in a more or less traditional way by the intelligence apparatus of the nations involved.

Should we assume that the US Cyberspace Command is similarly ineffective in its campaign against Al Qeda or is the US simply toying with Assange?

Whose computers have been recruited to serve as 'bots' in the denial of service attacks?

Are computers conscripted into the campaign would you know if your computer had been drafted and served in the campaign?

[Goldstein1984]

1. We should assume

anything that can be used to challenge Power will be controlled by Power.

And we should assume that any sword the People have is, if regulated in any way by Power, two-edged.

Internet...
Cell phones...
GPS...
Radio communications...
Security cameras...
Energy...
Water...
Food...
Freedom...

[RandomThoughts]

3. Will be tried to be controlled by power.

The only power anything has is the power you give them They can only get you to agree with them if you listen to the way they try to get you to see things.

That is really most of it, trying to change your perspective on things.

That assumes you see things better, since if you see things bad, then the attempt is for you to see the better ideas in many things.


So most of the spiritual, and most of what people say is power, is things trying to get you to see through their filters. Once they control what you see, they can control what you think and do easier. Maybe it is rules applied back from some in places like marketing and the media doing that for so many years, maybe the PR and marketing got the idea from them.


Side note, I do agree both sides do that, so I think you have to be able to choose what you see based also on heart and learning.

And the more what you see is managed by a group, the more you have to find what you want to see, and the more the spiritual becomes visible to people to help you with that.

[DonCoquixote]

4. how is freedom two edged?

cameras are one thing, freedom another.

[Goldstein1984]

6. You can be given only enough freedom to hang yourself

[DonCoquixote]

7. so the answer would be

to seek more freedom, not less.

[AngryAmish]

2. Russia v. Georgia a few years back

Everyone's computers have been recruited. They send out worms to do this. Actually, there is no need to send out your own worms since you can rent the botnets very cheap.

Catchng the worms is fairly easy but people are stupid about computer security. Stealing Windows and not updating it is one way. People smarter than me in this field can explain.

[HereSince1628]

5. It does seem to me to require an attack through distributed sources

against a single target server or hub.

The attacker can't swamp it's own servers with attack traffic.
On the other side, the defense against that seems to be to have dispersed the target, essentially many servers mirroring the same information.

So the clandestine conscripting of computers would seem to be an MO for an attacker. Can a defender operate enough mirroring sites that attacks become pointless or does the nature of being an information distributor create an inherent vulnerability?

[kgnu_fan]

8. Wikileaks vs. Multi-national Military Industrial Complex ???