Ask the Air Force Cyber Command General About War in Cyberspace 315
We ran an article about the new Air Force Cyber Command and its recruiting efforts on February 13, 2008. Now Major General William Lord, who is in charge of this effort, has agreed to answer Slashdot users' questions. If you're thinking about joining up -- or just curious -- this is a golden opportunity to learn how our military is changing its command structure and recruiting efforts to deal with "cyberspace as a warfighting domain." Usual Slashdot interview rules apply.
Already in, how can I help? (Score:4, Interesting)
Remote work? (Score:2, Interesting)
War on blogs? (Score:4, Interesting)
Unplugging (Score:4, Interesting)
Cyberwarfare Doctrine (Score:4, Interesting)
Attacks on the US and its Allies by China (Score:5, Interesting)
Difference In Culture (Score:5, Interesting)
How do you propose to reconcile those conflicts and establish your organization with any semblance of 'geek cred' to get the real talent you sound interested in attracting? What sorts of 'carrots' will you wave to attract people?
relaxing rules (Score:5, Interesting)
Older recruits? (Score:5, Interesting)
In a traditional branch of the army/navy/airforce that is probably as it should be.
But in this area people have to be trained for years, still not know as much as the older hands in the private industry, and before they really know enough their enlistment would be over. Also, it would be unacceptable for an older IT person to join but take a pay cut to a Private's level or perhaps even a Lieutenant's -- so I imagine this branch would have to be somewhat different.
Is the military going to do to reach out toward the older folks who have extensive experience and knowledge outside the military?
A question about requirements (Score:5, Interesting)
Which acts of war should be illegal in cyberspace? (Score:5, Interesting)
In conventional warfare, certain actions such as hiding among civilian populations are forbidden. These actions are considered war crimes because of the collateral damage they are likely to cause. What actions in cyberspace do you think should be outlawed? How about intentionally bringing down hospital IT systems, or destroying undersea cables without regard to the effects on civilian populations?
Physical Fitness (Score:5, Interesting)
- Space Rogue
When the USA finally gets "IT"... (Score:2, Interesting)
Preferred Skillset? (Score:2, Interesting)
Are you prepared for this? (Score:5, Interesting)
If so, can you tell me why you chose ASP to run your website? Won't you have enough trouble recruiting as is without alienating some open-source loving folks right off the bat?
So far everything I've seen about this organization is riddled with basic mistakes. I wish you the best of luck but I'm just not convinced you have any idea what you're getting yourself into with this initiative.
Criminal vs Warlike Actions (Score:5, Interesting)
General Lord,
Does the AFCC have a mandate to pursue criminals that use information infrastructure to commit crimes, or is your group intended to defend against warlike attacks only?
If the latter is true, how would you distinguish between criminal activity and warlike activity in cyberspace?
Will the USAF Cyber Command be full of TPS reports (Score:4, Interesting)
Will you be forced on to the standard USAF window base image with limited admin accounts like how the navy and marine systems that are a Big mess are setup?
Will you use mac and linux like how the army does?
Re:Benefits? (Score:3, Interesting)
Could a Cyber Attack Trigger a Real War? (Score:5, Interesting)
General Lord,
I'm curious to know if you have have any criteria that would enable you do decide when a cyber attack is an act of war. Would it be possible for some kind of action inside a network to lead to a shooting war without some kind of overt physical threat occurring first?
Former Army Research Lab SLAD/IO (Score:-1, Interesting)
I spent some time in the Army Research Lab's SLAD/IO Division in New Mexico. When I joined I thought I would be doing exploit development, reverse engineering and so forth. But it never seemed like the direction of the organization was going in going in a way that seemed to take the mission seriously. There were smart people there but they weren't being driven in the right direction. I don't think it was management's fault, either. There just were no hackers there. I still sometimes wonder if I misunderstood during the interview.
So what is life going to be like at AFCC? I know there is work to be done but is it the kind of thing a hacker would want to do? Is it going to be more development, reverse engineering, etc? Also, is it going to *pay* like I would expect?
Re:As A Military Commander... (Score:3, Interesting)
CyberCommand Location (Score:5, Interesting)
Can you explain some about the situation developing between Barksdale AFB and Offutt AFB as they try to fight over the eventual final location for CyberCommand? My thoughts are that finding and recruiting talent, and laying the foundation for such a large wired infrastructure in the Omaha, Nebraska area may be easier to accomplish than in and around Shreveport, LA. What types of things is the DoD looking for when they choose the final location for this new Command?
International Development and AFCC's Tool Set (Score:5, Interesting)
General Lord,
Some of the "hacker" types that I understand the AFCC is looking for probably will prefer to work with Linux and Linux applications.
Due to the international nature of software like Linux that has been developed through the "free" paradigm, would this be allowed? These tools will have been produced by nationals from many different countries, perhaps even those that the United States could find itself fighting a cyber war against.
SCADA Warfare (Score:2, Interesting)
Will there be a doctrine for cyber attacks on enemy critical infrastructure systems for the Air Force Cyber Command? If so, what efforts are currently in place/planned to support war fighter knowledge in the arena of SCADA and control system security, and the methods for causing damage to enemy infrastructure? What importance, if any, do you and Cyber Command place on the having the capability to destroy or disable the SCADA systems that control enemy infrastructure via CyberWarfare?
~Sticky
National Labs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought those were the popular destinations for educated people who want to serve their country, they're already technically oriented, and they already have a lot of really smart people, so it would have seemed to me a good fit. When I'm looking at my employment possibilities, I need a way to differentiate you.
Accept, Retain, Solicit good people? (Score:5, Interesting)
Some of the most talented people in computer security tend to have the sort of records that prevent them from getting clearance. Maybe nothing heavily criminal, but enough of a colored background that traditional security clearance mechanisms would throw them out of the room before they get started. Often the same types of minds that are really good at computer security are also the rebel types, who'll have some history. Will you work to get these people in, or are we looking at a bunch of off-the-shelf programmers/admins who've taken a few simple courses in computer security?
Also, how do you plan to attract/retain them? Again, rebel types are some of the best hackers, and they're not likely to go in without incentives. Not due to any lack of patriotism per se, but an unexplored understanding of it. More importantly, they're likely to be anti-establishment types who aren't comfortable in the strict traditional chain of command. Finally, usually the outside industry pays quite well for the good ones. Are you prepared to financially compete for the best?
Finally, will there be any connections back to the research/academic community? You may find academics more happy to help than usual, as cyber warfare can often be nonviolent. Also, will the existing (and immense) capability within the NSA be properly leveraged?
I'm glad to see our DoD taking our nation's networked security seriously. Right now it's just a bad, bad joke.
Best of Luck!
-Lally Singh
Why was the Air Force tasked with this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Unplugging (Score:2, Interesting)
What if this alternative existed for Mitnick? (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the storied stereotypes of the hacker domain is that of the nabbed "black hat" being impressed Into a "white hat" role. (Think Leonardo DiCaprio's role in "Catch Me If You Can".) However, the US armed forces no longer offer service as an alternative to prison (last I checked anyway), even though it offers a hacker in such a position the best deal he or she may ever get.
Would you seriously consider trying to exploit the talents of convicted hackers if you thought those talents could be a viable asset?
Question about Existing Contractors (Score:5, Interesting)
Cyberwarfare and the Law (Score:2, Interesting)
How does it affect people outside the US? (Score:2, Interesting)
Like everything else this has both good and bad effects for me. I don't think our establishments here have a very good idea of what freedom of speech means and they could easily do some wrong here. On the other hand it opens up business opportunities for people like me which is the part I would be interested in.
So, here are my questions. What kind of stuff does your division do? Do you outsource any of it to the private sector? Do you outsource any of it to India or other countries?
I suppose data mining the internet would be a key part of your operations. What kind of tools and cyber-technologies would you consider? Which are you already investing in? What kind of tools/techs could I work on that could benefit operations such as the ones you plan to undertake?
The military entering new domains has historically benefited the research and development in these sectors and I look forward to the new cool civilian tech this could bring along with it.
Supermilworms (Score:3, Interesting)
Superworms [wormblog.com] such as Storm [wired.com] represent perhaps the greatest threat to the internet becasue their stealthy natures allows the organization of millions of computers into a covert zombie botnet before their true exploit is finally launched. Will Cyber Command launch offensive operations to hunt down and destroy superworms already imbedded in cyberspace civilian computers, or create supermilworms (new word for CC use if you wish, with zero Google hits) that covertly draft millions of civilian cyberspace computers as secret War Reserve resources available for future callup and deployment in a future cyberspace battle?
National Guard Role? (Score:3, Interesting)
In major campaigns, the National Guard (and Air National Guard) play a significant role and are often the front line service. How do you see the individual state Guard units participating? In addition, what Civilian roles will be both a part of the Guard and contracted to the Guard?
I really hope this gets asked (Score:3, Interesting)
I think Internet Privateers, a sibling-comment suggests, would be perfectly legitimate - and as effective, if not more effective, than an organized USAF "cyber attack" on, e.g, the PRC. I don't doubt the need for a "cyber command" to protect American information infrastructure, but I strongly suspect that an distributed, head-less method of attack is a better offensive strategy than a monolithic one. And I think most people on Slashdot would agree (although I am eager to hear arguments against it).
So really - what is your response to what the parent suggests? In the case that an offensive is required against enemy information targets, would the USAF be willing to publish a list of IP addresses for private citizens to crack?