From The Register: US general: ‘We’re cleared to cyber-bomb enemy hackers’
Air Force General Robert Kehler of the US Strategic Command has come out saying that he feels there are no additional requirements (in terms of authorization) for him to engage in cyber-warfare outside the “area of hostilities”.
As far as I can tell, the US military has basically turned the world into its pocket battleground with little regard for the collateral damage which may result. This has a non-trivial impact on the world as far too often those “cyber assets” are connected to “assets” and exert some level of… perhaps… supervisory control over the aforementioned “assets”.
I’m not actually ok with the US military using another country’s Electricity Management System as it’s battleground given the lack of clear thinking shown by the US military with regard to the citizens of places that it wants to exercise it’s toys.
Anyone else wondering if “the right to bear arms” and “the citizen’s militia” are about to become interesting topics for discussion? Talk about your battles with the ill-equipped.
(CC Image from maha-online’s Flickr stream)
EDIT: s/it\’s/its
Considering the assault on the US power grid, and almost every major company in the US by China… I would say it’s about time.
That’s an interesting point of view.
As I’m sure you are aware, the US and China are locked in an economic war right now – which the US is losing – and you think that it is reasonable to conduct war wherever necessary to somehow undo the damage that the US has done to itself over the last 20 years through a complete disregard for sane economic policy and material sovereignty?
Do you really believe that there will be no collateral damage?
How do you feel about acceptable losses?
I am genuinely interested in your answers.
Thanks for commenting!
replying to self –
“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.”
The Ministry of Information is alive and well.
(comment on typo — for internal use)
Hi,
text: into it’s pocket
error: it’s
fix: its
Thanks.
“the US and China are locked in an economic war right now”…
um… you do realize how that sounds, right?
After all… what kind of conflict is it when all China would need to do to “cripple” the US would be to cash out on all it’s investments in the US.
I thought the point you were trying to make was that the US (and other nations) were now about to “officially” start some new proxy cyber-wars.
Yes, it was a specific response to the poster “unknown” — who seems to lack comprehension of just what the relationship between the US and China is – it’s not some sort of shadow super hacker war – it’s a very public war that the overwhelming majority of USians can’t seem to see.
You are absolutely correct that the literal ability to cripple the US is something that China has well in hand – not just through simple foreclosure but also through some rather simple “oops, we forgot to sell some of that to you” — have you had a look at the US mfg vs. use numbers for something as simple as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as used in food preservation? It’s pretty bad. Not being able to preserve the harvest should scare the living crap out of USians.
And the point that I was making was not only that the US Strategic Command is telling us that it’s going to start playing with it’s cyber-parts, but that it will do so without regard to whether or not the battle ground is “in theatre” — meaning that a battle between (for example) China and the US may well be fought in the financial computers of Europe. My issue is that the US has long promulgated its position as “good guy” and it’s acting like “bully” a little too often.