[ISN] U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html

By DAVID E. SANGER, JOHN MARKOFF and THOM SHANKER
The New York Times
April 27, 2009

This article was reported by David E. Sanger, John Markoff and Thom 
Shanker and written by Mr. Sanger.

When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a 
trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered 
information that drove them into American gun sights.

When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress 
toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental 
covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into their 
computers and undermine the project.

And the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a 
highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is to 
simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the country’s 
power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or freeze the 
financial markets — in an effort to build better defenses against such 
attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons.

Just as the invention of the atomic bomb changed warfare and deterrence 
64 years ago, a new international race has begun to develop cyberweapons 
and systems to protect against them.

[...]


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