Gizmodo: air force cyber command

Air Force Cyber Command to Be Rebooted

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

The Air Force Cyber Command, those guys who want to pwn cyberspace with their fancy PlayStation 3 farms and kinetic-denial-of-service Mk84 bombs, has been put on hold by the new USAF head honcho, General Norton A. Schwartz.

Apparently, there are some conflicts in the Pentagon about who has the control over cyberspace. According to an Air Force source, Admiral Mike Mullen—chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—wants the Navy to be involved. And while the kids fight for their shiny toys, the Russians hackers are now fighting on the internet for real. Great. Thank God that we have the CIA and the NSA looking out for the well-being of the Free World. [NextGov via Ars Technica]

US Military Hackers Could Pwn Enemies Using Real Bombs, Missiles

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:24:00 EDT

We knew that the Air Force Cyber Command is supposed to fight against enemy computer attacks using their skillz, computer programs, and massive PlayStation 3s networks. Now Christian Lowe at Defense Tech reveals that, if they can't stop the attacks using a terminal, the US military hackers can actually order a cruise missile attack or drop a couple of MK84 bombs on the hacker at the other side of the line. Or like Col. Tony Buntyn, vice commander of Air Force Cyber Command, euphemistically refers to as "kinetic warfare."

You can find, fix, target, and engage an enemy. A target could be a [computer] network... or it could be physical, with a [geographical] location. But we need the capabilities, just like we have in kinetic warfare, to engage targets when necessary. It could be either a kinetic or non-kinetic effect you want to achieve. And we need the ability to provide either.

It depends on our target; it depends on our rules of engagement—are we conducting open warfare with an adversary? If that's the case, then we don't really need to be discreet about it. When we drop a JDAM [Joint DIrect Attack Munition aka "big mofo guided bomb"] and leave a big smoking hole, that's not very discreet.

If I can [locate] it and I can take it out with a kinetic attack ... and it meets the rules of engagement, then that might be the preferred method.

I can already imagine the IRC chats "Noob!? See if you can firewall this, bozo!" [Defense Tech]

Air Force Cyber Command Wants Intarwebs Supremacy

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:00:30 EST

The Air Force Cyber Command, headed by Major General William T. Lord (from now on to be referered here as Sir Lord Darth Vader Von Ham—or Jeff) has released their Strategic Vision in the 2008 National Threat Assessment. It can be summarized as "Get ready u 1ee7 people, haxxors, and LOLcats! We're gonna p0wn U!" Finally, it looks like the US military is getting really serious about the Web lately, and the Cyber Command is working towards being fully operational in 2009 now, in order to achieve:

• The ability to deter adversaries.
• The ability to deny access and operations to adversaries.
• The ability to disrupt adversaries.
• The ability to deceive adversaries.
• The ability to dissuade adversaries.
• The ability to defeat adversaries.

Why the Air Force? We don't know, but it may be that they think that since they own the skies and the Intarwebs is all wireless now, they are in a better position to tackle the potential cyber-attacks coming from the Bad Guys. The Army and the NSA also want a piece of this new cake, however, and are fighting with each other to get the top spot in the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, the Axis of Evil keeps its attack on million of Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and World of Warcraft lumberjacks around the world. [Defense Tech]