Cyber intelligence comes in a variety of forms and from many places and sources. For years intelligence organizations look at routine communications by organizations they target to gain insight from the communications that the targeted group or organization has with its members.
For a while now intelligence organizations have been monitoring an online magazine known as Inspire which is said to be produced by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Keep reading →
The big news reverberating through cybersecurity circles last week, reported by the New York Times, that the U.S. was behind the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iranian nuclear enrichments back in 2010 has set off a new firestorm of concern about the likelihood of retaliation.
The news report was based on information provided by “unnamed participants in the program.” In the article it states that the information in the piece was called an “account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts.” Keep reading →
In a move that suggests the incendiary impact of malicious software, Iran has now publicly threatened the United States over the Flame malware incident that has gained worldwide attention in recent days.
Flame has been dubbed the “utlimate spy” and for good reason. Iran was the country hit the hardest by the state-of-the-art piece of malware. Keep reading →
It happened again. A number of countries have been hit by what has been called the most sophisticated piece of malware seen to date.
The malware is called Flame – appropriate given the number of computers that have been burned by this latest cyber weapon. Keep reading →
Cyber Sit-ins, cyber protests and other forms of demonstration have grown year after year and are now considered formidable method of protests.
How to respond to those new forms of protests, amid other cybersecurity threats, has become a challenge around the world for government elections, politicians, corporations, law enforcement organizations all of which have experienced the wrath of those who oppose their actions. Keep reading →
In recent years, Joint Special Operations Forces (JSOF) around the world have experienced a fair amount of growth. This growth has resulted in a rapid increase in their ranks, a boost in their budgets and an expansion of the scope of their missions.
This growth was further accelerated by the widely publicized Special Operations Forces that were used in the killing of Osama bin Laden. In a press conference from the Pentagon President Obama with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta articulated their vision of the future military.
The new vision states that “we will continue to build and sustain tailored capabilities appropriate for counter terrorism and irregular warfare.” That vision, which was reinforced in a blog post by Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, means growth for JSOF, but does that mean growth into cyber?
Secretary of Defense Panetta made it clear that the Defense Department must invest more in cyber capabilities saying, “Modern armed forces cannot conduct high-tempo, effective operations without reliable information and communication networks and assured access to cyberspace.”
While he did not mention offensive cyber capabilities you can be sure that is a critical capability that will see additional investment.
What if cyber becomes an increased focus and capability of our JSOFs?
As a general principal, our military must protect critical cyber assets while attacking the enemy’s cyber capabilities. Integrating cyber with JSOFs makes allot of sense and will only increase the weaponry and ultimately the value they provide.
Full integration of cyberspace operations into the traditional air-land-sea battle space is not an option! The covert missions carried out by JSOF are among the riskiest and are of the greatest value in the pursuit of national security.
A Joint Special Cyber Operations capability is not an option. Rather, it is a necessity in the highly contested domain of cyber space.