This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to mimeat_private for more info. --------------554C2D8311D3 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=us-ascii Content-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.96.980913085045.4421dat_private> http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/other/609.htm >From Crypt Newsletter 50, August 1998, distributed to the mailing list: Strapped, or so it claims, for savvy information warriors, the Pentagon is considering employing reserves as a pool of cyberdefense warriors. The plan calls for approximately 300 reservists with Ph.D's. to be employed as virtual info-warriors working from the redoubts of their homes on PCs. Upon learning of it, an alert Crypt Newsletter reader quipped: "I'm still trying to get my mind around the reaction of other reservists when they learn that their new Brainiac, Ph.D.-certified, info-warrior colleagues get to work at home!" And if they're real Brainiacs, they'll sell themselves to the private sector computer security industry which, in turn, will sell their services back to the Department of Defense for much more than what they were earning as military men. [And we won't even mention the little problem of where DoD expects to produce 300 Ph.D. reservists who specialize in comsec from overnite.] Ironically, many ex-soldiers with comsec experience are already doing this, landing in paradoxical situations in which they find themselves directing commanding officers, the same officers who had ignored them or brushed aside recommendations and suggestions when they were subordinates. In this world, it should come as no surprise to find instances where the military literally eats its young. Take the example of the Air Force's 609th Information Warfare Squadron at Shaw AFB, SC. The 609th, a group that pioneered base perimeter computer security for the Air Force, finds itself set to be closed down in approximately a year. Outwardly a victim of budget cuts, sources say it was a victim of publicity wars and professional rivalries within the USAF. Just prior to the 609th's creation in 1995, then Air Force Chief of Staff Ronald Fogelman realized the Air Force Information Warfare Center was beholden to the Air Intelligence Agency in San Antonio, Texas. The Air Intelligence Agency did whatever it wanted because it didn't have to report to anyone. "Air Combat Command knew this and decided it had to do its own thing," said one of the info-warriors interviewed for this article. "General Fogelman wanted to see a fresh approach to information superiority. The Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team wasn't doing good enough with its hacker intrusion software." Fogelman ordered the Air Combat Command, not the Air Intelligence Command, to come up with something useful. Their idea was to come up with a deployable formation, throw tons of money at it and cultivate cyber-crews in its new information warfare squadron. With no preconceptions and rules, members of the newly formed 609th fanned out into the worlds of military and corporate computer security, looking for anything that could serve as base perimeter defenses. Enter a group of computer scientists who comprised former staff members of the Air Force's Information Warfare Center and who had led the investigation of the Brit hacker break-ins at Rome Labs/Air Force Material Command in 1994. "These guys had opted out of the Air Force because leadership at AFIWC wasn't listening," said one information warrior close to the action in San Antonio, Texas. "There was a need for a network sniffer and Asim, AFIWC's choice, didn't cut it. The Air Force's computer scientists, however, had developed one that did, called NetRanger . . . so they jumped and formed WheelGroup." To members of the 609th, however, NetRanger seemed ideal. WheelGroup provided a neat solution: a box and software ready to go. The squadron installed NetRanger at Shaw AFB. "AFIWC was pissed at WheelGroup and the 609th. There was lots of bad blood." However, the 609th knew nothing about politicking and public relations. "AFIWC did," said one source who sympathizes with the plight of the 609th. "They [AFIWC] always have people lobbying for their causes at the Pentagon." [WheelGroup was recently purchased by Cisco Systems. The NetRanger product and its successors will undoubtedly be used by many military installations.] --------------554C2D8311D3-- -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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