The Pentagon recently classified hacking government infrastructure as an act of war, according to the BBC. In the coming weeks, the U.S. government will publish a cyber defense strategy, the BBC reported, which may or may not include how the government will react to cyber attacks of varying severity.
The change in policy comes several months after the 4chan affiliated hacker group Anonymous rendered the Egyptian Ministry of Information's webpage inoperable during the height of the protest movement. Less than two weeks later, then President Hosni Muburak stepped down; he and sons await trial in August.
The online attacks disrupted the then Muburak controlled government's ability to counter the opposition's flaring social media campaigns, but state television continued to reach the majority of the populace.
Anonymous' cyber attacks may have added little more than moral support to the Egyptian protest movement, but their impact on future political activities has yet to be seen.
The most fanatical of America's modern activists use tactics comparable to those of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement than those of the armed militants of the seventies. Disrupting corporate email systems, planting information stealing virus or manipulating traffic patterns to block access to G8 meetings fit the methodology of today's non-violent youth.
Anonymous' main weapon—the Low Orbiting Ion Cannon—is a free computer program which enables users with minimal computer skills to perform Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks—accessing a system with such frequency that the website's server cannot handle the amount of traffic, rendering the site unreachable—on targets of their choosing. The user can also relinquish control to a specific person, like the head of a political group, whom specifies the targets.
Controlling multiple computers adds potency to the DDoS attacks, and brings down bigger targets. The Anonymous hivemind brought down the servers of multiple credit card companies that helped Amazon sell electronic copies of the WikiLeaks releases, while refusing to host their website, earlier this year.
Similar programs can turn groups of idealistic teenagers into the online equivalent of the bank robbing political gangs of America's past.
Fighting political injustice from behind a computer screen hides their identity better than a black ski-mask; the hackers behind the International Monetary Fund's recent security breach are still unknown. Downloading quasi-legal software carries less severe penalties than buying firearms, making e-terrorism more palatable to today's political activists, but the consequences may be the same.
When The Department of Defense releases their new doctrines, expect a new discussion over the definition of domestic terrorism. The government plans may lead to frequent deployments of army strike forces to the placid streets of suburbia, which will lead to messy legal arguments and alienate middle-class voters who will be mildly irritated if their children are dragged to the stockade just like any other unlawful combatant.
Cheers,
T Magnum
The change in policy comes several months after the 4chan affiliated hacker group Anonymous rendered the Egyptian Ministry of Information's webpage inoperable during the height of the protest movement. Less than two weeks later, then President Hosni Muburak stepped down; he and sons await trial in August.
The online attacks disrupted the then Muburak controlled government's ability to counter the opposition's flaring social media campaigns, but state television continued to reach the majority of the populace.
Anonymous' cyber attacks may have added little more than moral support to the Egyptian protest movement, but their impact on future political activities has yet to be seen.
The most fanatical of America's modern activists use tactics comparable to those of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement than those of the armed militants of the seventies. Disrupting corporate email systems, planting information stealing virus or manipulating traffic patterns to block access to G8 meetings fit the methodology of today's non-violent youth.
Anonymous' main weapon—the Low Orbiting Ion Cannon—is a free computer program which enables users with minimal computer skills to perform Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks—accessing a system with such frequency that the website's server cannot handle the amount of traffic, rendering the site unreachable—on targets of their choosing. The user can also relinquish control to a specific person, like the head of a political group, whom specifies the targets.
Controlling multiple computers adds potency to the DDoS attacks, and brings down bigger targets. The Anonymous hivemind brought down the servers of multiple credit card companies that helped Amazon sell electronic copies of the WikiLeaks releases, while refusing to host their website, earlier this year.
Similar programs can turn groups of idealistic teenagers into the online equivalent of the bank robbing political gangs of America's past.
Fighting political injustice from behind a computer screen hides their identity better than a black ski-mask; the hackers behind the International Monetary Fund's recent security breach are still unknown. Downloading quasi-legal software carries less severe penalties than buying firearms, making e-terrorism more palatable to today's political activists, but the consequences may be the same.
When The Department of Defense releases their new doctrines, expect a new discussion over the definition of domestic terrorism. The government plans may lead to frequent deployments of army strike forces to the placid streets of suburbia, which will lead to messy legal arguments and alienate middle-class voters who will be mildly irritated if their children are dragged to the stockade just like any other unlawful combatant.
Cheers,
T Magnum
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