FC: Military frets about sensitive .mil info on Internet

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sun Aug 11 2002 - 23:41:44 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Rip, Mix, Burn: Politics of peer to peer and copyright law"

    I'm surprised the article didn't complain about John Young's efforts:
    http://cryptome.org/naic-eyeball.htm
    
    ---
    
    Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 09:47:28 -0700
    From: "Jeffrey St. Clair" <sitkaat_private>
    To: CP List <counterpunch-listat_private>,
        David Vest <davidvestat_private>, Dave Marsh <marsh6at_private>,
        Chuck Spinney <cspinneyat_private>, Declan McCullagh <declanat_private>
    Subject: Space Command v. the Internet
    
    http://www.gazette.com/stories/0811top2.php
    
    August 11, 2002
    
    Internet Good Friend to Terrorists - Schriever squadron
    roots out information that makes bases vulnerable -
    
    By John Diedrich, The Gazette
    
    [ -- PHOTO: Bryan Oller, The Gazette. This Global
    Positioning System jammer shows how compact such a device
    can be. The 527th Space Aggressor Squadron at Schriever Air
    Force Base assembled the item using parts commonly available
    at retail stores. -- ]
    
    A computer and Internet connection found in millions of
    homes can reveal a lot about a U.S. military base: how high
    a fence is, where the operations center and fuel supply are
    located and how many troops live there.
    
    That scares a military braced for more terrorist attacks.
    
    Airmen in the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron at Schriever
    Air Force Base work to make such an attack tougher. They
    scour the Internet for potentially compromising information,
    thinking and acting like the enemy.
    
    They can't, however, yank the information when they find it.
    They simply show commanders where their base might be
    vulnerable.
    
    Such information once was the domain of powerful nations
    with satellites, spy planes and billion-dollar budgets. The
    Internet and high-quality satellite pictures from private
    companies put the information a click and a credit card
    away. The threat from easily available information - coined
    "open-source intelligence" - is real.
    
    Last year, U.S. soldiers found a General Accounting Office
    report on an al-Qaida computer in Afghanistan that showed
    how easy it is to breach security at sensitive U.S.
    buildings.
    
    The United States has since "scrubbed" its Web sites of
    potentially sensitive information, but more than government
    information is available on the Internet.
    
    High-resolution satellite pictures, including images of
    military installations, are for sale or free on the Web.
    
    [...]
    
    <http://www.gazette.com/military/schriever.html>
    
    
    
    
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