OSINT: Internet Failure
- Here is some very well done analysis of the impact of failing internet cables.
- Here is what can only be called a short book (actually a Wired article) by Neal Stephenson on the laying of fiber optic cable circa 1996.
Cyber Assassination
“Cyber assassination” is when an individual is unaware that he or she is the subject of a cyber attack designed to discredit them and to call into question his or her credibility or loyalty.
Note this that this type of attack is totally reliant upon hierarchy.
Review: “The Lost Room”
Thirding John and Dan‘s recommendations. Very impressed with the story, especially with the layers not becoming cumbersome (like Lost). We were left looking for more.
Social Engineering Emergency Responders
ThreatLevel: An example of leveraging open social systems to collect intelligence from people who are generally not trained for INFOSEC and usually don’t think in terms of security:
Someone is staging social engineerings attacks against emergency responders in a mysterious effort to wheedle sensitive information from them, according to a DHS information-sharing center:
“The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) continues to receive information regarding instances within the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) of social engineering by telephone, electronic mail, chat rooms, bulletin boards, and face-to-face. Social engineering is a method of fraudulently gaining access privileges to an organization’s sensitive information and assets by querying personnel over the communications media identified in the preceding sentence.”
Caldwell On Reform
Lt. General William B. Caldwell has an article at Small Wars Journal in which he calls for the Army to adapt to modern warfare by:
- Encouraging soldiers to engage in information operations. “Tell their story.”
- Empower subordinates. Underwriting risk-taking and innovative thinking.
- Educate on the cascading results of their actions.
- Equip. Video cameras are more powerful than guns.
Long-term: If pushing power to the bottom is taken to its logical we will collapse the hierarchy of our industrial age military. The net result is positive. Think OSS instead of CIA.