[ISN] US Air Force unveils cyberwar swords & shields

[InfoSec News]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17008

By Doug Mohney
05 July 2004

OVER THE PAST month, U.S. Air Force briefers have been unveiling 
capabilities and strategies to wargeek pubs like Jane's and Aviation 
Week for "Information Operations", a term that encompasses computer 
network attack and defense together with more "traditional" electronic 
warfare activities and psychological warfare (psyops). 

IO is a relatively new invention recently applied to Iraq last year 
during the effort to oust Saddam Hussein. One success touted by a 
senior AF general was a combination of psyops leaflets dropped by 
airplanes together with e-mail pumped into the Iraqi military's 
computer network to dissuade Iraqi troops from fighting. 

IO operations was likely one of the main reasons Tom Clancy fans 
didn't see the use of the much-anticipated EMP bomb, a weapon designed 
to generate to disrupt (scramble) or destroy (fry) electronics with a 
burst of microwaves. Future IO missions are expected to e integrated 
to the existing range of "kinetic solutions" (i.e. dropping a 2,000 lb 
bomb) in a seamless set of solutions. 

Another capability the AF would like to de-classify is the ability to 
turn anti-aircraft missiles stupid, making them miss aircraft without 
bombs. "I look forward to the day when we can convince a 
surface-to-air missile that it is a Maytag in a rinse cycle," said 
General Hal Hornburg in an interview with Aviation Week. The 
capability is available in the computer network attack toolbox to 
penetrate and manipulate another military's communications network. 
Declassifying the capability would make it quicker to implement into 
future operations. 

Classified exercises have demonstrated the Air Force's ability to 
enter into an enemy's air defense computer network, see and monitor 
what the enemy radars could detect in real time, and the ability to 
take over the network as a systems administrator and start 
manipulating radars. Currently, this capability has been demonstrated 
on the EC-130 Compass Call aircraft, a slow 4 engine cargo plane 
loaded with electronic gear, but the Air Force has jawed up the 
ability of this mission to be taken up by the much more sexy and 
expensive F/A-22 fighter aircraft.

Air Force computer network defence also falls under the IO mission. 
During Iraqi operations, Air Force defenders took such steps as 
blocking out chunks of Internet addresses known to be used by overseas 
hackers for attacks. Commanders are concerned hackers will pass 
through a U.S. Internet Service Provider to launch attacks, using the 
ISP as a legal shield. Under American law, the military is precluded 
from operating against U.S. civilian interests, so civilian law 
enforcement must be called in to investigate and take action. Needless 
to say, this takes time and bureaucracy. In the future, the Air Force 
would like to see the creation of a hot-pursuit capability that would 
allow them to go after attackers regardless of where they are coming 
from.