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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical RE: Vulnerbilities of Interconnection
At 2:01 PM -0700 2002/09/06, Jeff Shultz wrote: I wouldn't be too surprised. The Patriot has a clock problem, and can't be left turned on for an extended period of time. There are plenty of military systems everywhere in the world that have various operational issues that may not materially reduce their effectiveness in their official role, but which may make them less suitable for other roles.Said tube electronics were apparently more survivable against EMP effects. Or was that the point you were making? I think the real surprise was a toggle switch that Belenko said was supposed to be flipped only when told over the radio by higher headquarters. It changed the characteristics of the radar.... sort of a "go to war" mode vs. the standard training mode. These things exist. I would be more concerned about drive-by attacks with HERF (High Energy Radio Frequency) guns, capable of generating an EMP field that can wipe out RAM on any computer device that is not suitably protected (Tempest shielding or being in a SCIF?). These things can be made relatively portable and undetectable until such time as they are turned on -- unlike nuclear devices that can be detected by Geiger counters, etc.... A drive-by with a van would be a lot easier to organize than hi-jacking a nuclear-equipped submarine.An interesting, if not totally professional evaluation of something like this is in Steven Coonts book "America" where terrorists take over an American nuclear submarine armed with a new type of Tomahawk warhead - an EMP warhead. One of the early targets is AOL HQ in Reston, VA., (I almost cheered). BTW, AOL headquarters is in Sterling, not Reston. It's not that far away, so I can understand why people not from that area would not be aware of the difference. What do you mean by "nearby"? Do you count the "TerraPOP"? Do you count Langley?Coonts has an inflated idea of what an outage there would do the the internet... but there is a lot of other stuff fairly nearby, isn't there? -- Brad Knowles, <[email protected]> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E W+++(--) N+ !w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++) tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)
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