cyberwar
A little while ago N. Korea launched a cyber-attack against S. Korea and the us. It was a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, and coming from such pathetically backwards nation as N. Korea, which hardly has the internet at all, it was a complete failure.
Actually, thats the way it should read. But it doesn't. North Korea was actually startlingly effective, shutting down a large number of S. Korean and US Govt. sites. It was characterized as a mid-level DDoS attack, certainly only a sliver of the kind of power Russia or especially China could marshal up. And it worked, very well. Amazon.com and the NASDAQ servers were strong enough to stand up to the onslaught, but a lot of US Govt. sites were not - and on top of that their security systems failed to block the attack.
A DDoS attack is basically taking a bunch of zombie (virus infected) computers, which are under the control of a central authority, and using them to direct a whole ton of traffic to certain servers in order to overload them. It is pretty simple and very effective. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the US defenses.
Much as this is overall a story--sadly--of US incompetence (we god pwned by N. Korea for Gods sake), there is an intersting twist. The US Airforce Cybercommand came out a little while ago and stated that they see a role for traditional "kinetic" warfare alongside cyberwarfare. In other words, if you hack us, we are going to drop a JDAM on your head.
Somewhere in N. Korea:
"Ohhhh, pwned the Sec. Def!!!! w00t w00t!! LOLZ!!!!"
3,500 miles away:
"Sir, we just got pwnded"
"Respond using kinetic countermeasures"
Actually, thats the way it should read. But it doesn't. North Korea was actually startlingly effective, shutting down a large number of S. Korean and US Govt. sites. It was characterized as a mid-level DDoS attack, certainly only a sliver of the kind of power Russia or especially China could marshal up. And it worked, very well. Amazon.com and the NASDAQ servers were strong enough to stand up to the onslaught, but a lot of US Govt. sites were not - and on top of that their security systems failed to block the attack.
A DDoS attack is basically taking a bunch of zombie (virus infected) computers, which are under the control of a central authority, and using them to direct a whole ton of traffic to certain servers in order to overload them. It is pretty simple and very effective. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the US defenses.
Much as this is overall a story--sadly--of US incompetence (we god pwned by N. Korea for Gods sake), there is an intersting twist. The US Airforce Cybercommand came out a little while ago and stated that they see a role for traditional "kinetic" warfare alongside cyberwarfare. In other words, if you hack us, we are going to drop a JDAM on your head.
Somewhere in N. Korea:
"Ohhhh, pwned the Sec. Def!!!! w00t w00t!! LOLZ!!!!"
3,500 miles away:
"Sir, we just got pwnded"
"Respond using kinetic countermeasures"
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