US Recruiting for Cyber Wars

April 16, 2008

Business Week Online

The U.S. military is looking for a few good geeks.

"This building will be attacked 3 million times today," announces the commentator as the Pentagon appears on an ad available on the popular video site YouTube (GOOG). "Who is going to protect it? Meet Staff Sergeant Lee Jones, Air Force Cyber Command, a member of America's only cyber command protecting us from millions of cyber threats every day."

The YouTube recruitment video is part of a high-profile ad campaign running on TV, in print, and on the Web. In the ads, the Air Force boasts of its ability to protect the nation from a potentially devastating cyber attack. The ads overstate just how protected the U.S. military's networks are [BusinessWeek, 4/10/08], but they underscore a new sense of urgency: As computer networks play increasingly vital roles in the U.S. military -- and expose it to new dangers from skilled information warriors trained by other nations -- the U.S. needs a new type of 21st century soldier.

"How do you tap into the intellect of a completely different kind of Air Force warrior?" asks General William T. Lord, the chief of the nascent Air Force Cyber Command -- the military's newest unit fighting digital warfare.

Techies on Patrol

General Lord thinks the answer may be to encourage U.S. hackers to enlist. In an interview with techie forum Slashdot in early March, he was asked if hackers with checkered pasts, and overweight geeks who couldn't pass a physical training test, were candidates to join the growing ranks of cyber soldiers. "I believe even the most unlikely candidate, when working for a cause bigger than himself, turns out to be a most loyal ally," the general wrote.

The next James Bond or GI Jane may well be a hacker -- routinely peering and probing computer networks to further his country's industrial or military edge. Instead of tense confrontations and close calls in far-off places, the digital warrior will telecommute. Simply tapping at a keyboard, she'll connect with electronic moles that will pass on gigabytes of valuable data stored in the networks of prime targets half a world away.

Using the Internet is less risky and exponentially more efficient, and, given some due diligence, cunning, and a knack for social engineering, the path leads to just about any computer's soft interior.

League of Electronic Nations

There are some surprising indications that this future has arrived in an abundance of ways. The U.S., China, and Russia are building up their cyber forces. "For the Chinese, info war is the next realm. They are never going to go tank to tank with the U.S.," says Matthew G. Devost, a former Pentagon network security tester and chief executive officer of Total Intelligence Solutions in Alexandria, Va. The Chinese military offers prizes to its best computer hackers, and according to a January, 2006, white paper by the Chinese military, it has a three-stage strategy between now and 2050 to win an "informationized war," one that is fast-paced and mostly digital.

The superpowers are hardly alone. The league of electronically prying, prodding, and posturing nations now numbers well into the dozens -- by some tallies, closer to 100. A report published in August, 2006, by the office of Joel F. Brenner, counterintelligence executive for the director of national intelligence, noted that his office discovered at least 108 countries engaged in "collection efforts against sensitive and protected U.S. technologies," up from 37 a decade ago. The report doesn't name many names, though it identifies China and Russia as among "the most aggressive" in targeting the U.S.

China denies any involvement in cyber spying [BusinessWeek.com, 4/10/08] and says it, too, is a victim, "frequently intruded [upon] and attacked by hackers from certain countries."

Spying on Defense Contractors on the Rise

The Russian government also denies participating in such activity. "Russia has never engaged in any kind of cyber intrusions in the U.S. or any other countries," says Yevgeniy Khorishko, the Russian government's spokesman at its embassy in Washington. "All these kinds of reports and articles that appear from time to time are pure speculation. They don't deserve to be commented upon."

Suspicious activity associated with attempts at spying and stealing information from defense contractors is on the rise, too -- especially from nations along the Pacific Rim and Asia, according to another declassified 2006 report by the Defense Security Service, which helps contractors keep tabs on espionage attempts.

In particular, the report noted a "dramatic increase in the number of incidents involving government affiliated entities," and rising use of the Internet as a tool of choice. "The potential gain from even one successful computer intrusion makes it an attractive, relatively low-risk option for any country seeking access to sensitive information stored on U.S. computer networks," the report notes, while predicting the risk to sensitive information from cyber spies "will increase as more countries gain the expertise to exploit those systems."

Weapons of Mass Disruption

In the U.S., the latest wave of sophisticated, precisely targeted attacks prompted the Defense Dept. last summer to give the incursions and thefts of sensitive data a new name: "advanced persistent threats." The phrase is meant to underscore both the virulent nature of this type of cyber intrusion and their origin: hackers working for foreign nations.

Pentagon insiders refer to the malicious software and devious methods of state-sponsored hackers as "weapons of mass disruption." U.S. military and intelligence officials worry about damage being inflicted by professionals, well-trained, backed by large sums of money, and making use of their own homegrown innovations. "Our adversaries are very good. But I'm not sure we've seen their best," says Lieutenant General Charles E. Croom, who heads the Pentagon's Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations.

A Different Kind of Soldier

The U.S. Air Force is preparing for a digital onslaught. It now aggressively seeks recruits, identifying cyber space in all its recruitment ads as its new domain of military activity. The Air Force has long had a role in aviation, of course, and also in space. Now it's adding cyber space. Among skills said to be in demand: the use of "hack backs" that probe intruders' own systems, and outright offensive measures. "Everything out there can reach and touch us," says General John C. "Chris" Inglis, deputy director of the National Security Agency. "We must be able to outmaneuver our adversaries."

Despite the alarming rise of cyber intrusions and a new sense of urgency, some traditions are hard to break. When General Lord told Air Force officials he wanted to reach out to hackers through a forum on Slashdot, some of his colleagues advised against it. "There were elements of the Air Force that didn't think I should engage the Slashdot guys," he says. "They're not the kind [of soldier] that I grew up with where you marched to breakfast in the morning. This is a different kind of crowd."

General Lord says he ignored the advice because the U.S. needs top-notch cyber soldiers. "It's speed of light warfare, it's not speed of sound warfare. It's faster than our F-22."

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