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Rick Wilking / Reuters file
First Lt Michael Newman examines a server rack that is isolated from the Internet at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., in July 2010.
The United States is locked in a tight race with China and Russia to build destructive cyberweapons capable of seriously damaging other nations’ critical infrastructure, according to a leading expert on hostilities waged via the Internet.
Scott Borg, CEO of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a nonprofit institute that advises the U.S. government and businesses on cybersecurity, said all three nations have built arsenals of sophisticated computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other tools that place them atop the rest of the world in the ability to inflict serious damage on one another, or lesser powers.
Ranked just below the Big Three, he said, are four U.S. allies: Great Britain, Germany, Israel and perhaps Taiwan.
But in testament to the uncertain risk/reward ratio in cyberwarfare, Iran has used attacks on its nuclear program to bolster its offensive capabilities and is now developing its own "cyberarmy," Borg said.
Borg offered his assessment of the current state of cyberwar capabilities Tuesday in the wake of a report by the American computer security company Mandiant linking hacking attacks and cyber espionage against the U.S. to a sophisticated Chinese group known as “Peoples Liberation Army Unit 61398.
According to a new White House report released today, cyber spying and other forms of economic espionage are a growing national security threat – especially from China, where hackers are able to quietly and discreetly acquire source code from U.S. companies. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
In today’s brave new interconnected world, hackers who can defeat security defenses are capable of disrupting an array of critical services, including delivery of water, electricity and heat, or bringing transportation to a grinding halt. U.S. senators last year received a closed-door briefing at which experts demonstrated how a power company employee could take down the New York City electrical grid by clicking on a single email attachment, the New York Times reported.
U.S. officials rarely discuss offensive capability when discussing cyberwar, though several privately told NBC News recently that the U.S. could "shut down" the electrical grid of a smaller nation -- Iran, for example – if it chose to do so.
Borg echoed that assessment, saying the U.S. cyberwarriors, who work within the National Security Agency, are “very good across the board. … There is a formidable capability.”
“Stuxnet and Flame (malware used to disrupt and gather intelligence on Iran's nuclear program) are demonstrations of that,” he said. “… (The U.S.) could shut down most critical infrastructure in potential adversaries relatively quickly.”
China, Russia have different priorities
Borg said China and Russia have similar capacity to cause mayhem, but have different priorities and skill sets.
usccu.us
Scott Borg says the U.S. possesses a 'formidable capability' to wage cyberwar.
“Russia is best at military espionage and operations,” he said. “That's what they have focused on for a long time. China is looking for crucial business information and technology. China's main focus is stealing technology. These things quite separate. You use different tools on critical infrastructure than you use for military espionage and different tools again on stealing technology."
Borg said that each has its strong suit. "The Russians are technically advanced. The Chinese just have more people dedicated to the effort, by a wide margin,” he said. “They are not as innovative or creative as the U.S. and Russia. China has the greatest quantity, if not quality."
Borg said the group featured in Mandiant’s report, the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398, may be one of the most important groups working in China, but not necessarily the most important.
"There are at least two dozen groups carrying out aggressive operations against the U.S.,” he said. “They get in each other’s way and trip over one another, but they are all operating with the tacit approval of the Chinese government.
"They're not cooperating with each other because they don’t share capabilities," he added. "One group has good programming, but is bad at access or targeting."
The Chinese hacking efforts are so broad, Borg said, that the highest-ranking Chinese officials “almost certainly do not know what all the groups are doing,” or the consequences. As a result, he added, they have been embarrassed by reports like the one in Tuesday’s New York Times, which first reported on the Mandiant assessment.
China is the most likely of the superpowers to leave a calling card, making their work the easiest to track. "China is very arrogant in its authorship of cyberweapons,” Borg said. “It does little to conceal its identity."
That’s in sharp contrast to the Russians, who he noted are not above writing code in Chinese to throw off investigators.
While the U.S. could respond to ongoing cyberattacks from China and Russia by shutting down the power grid of "any of its adversaries” and causing severe physical damage, Borg said it is encumbered by several factors.
One is its vulnerability to cyberwarfare as the world’s most networked nation, he said.
And from a geopolitical standpoint, Borg said, the U.S. would not want to badly damage the economy of either China or Russia. In fact, he said, the U.S. would almost certainly have to incorporate protections for critical systems like the power grid in any cyberattack.
Also, detecting the source of hostilities is not always easy, Borg said, as cybertracks are not as easy to follow as missile tracks. That means “mutually assured destruction,” the main strategic tenet of the Cold War, is problematic at best when talking about cyberwar, he said.
"It might be difficult to determine proportionate response,” he said. “It might not be simple to attack the attacker.”
For example, policymakers may think an attack has been carried out by the Chinese, when it was actually the work of the Russians or a rising power in the cyber world, like Iran. That is why intelligence -- getting insight into these operations -- is more important in a crisis than cyberforensics, which can take longer and not be as certain.
"There is no MAD in the Cold War sense," he said, "You can’t be 'assured' of attribution. The attack can be anonymous. It can be spoofed," or disguised as coming from another source.
Iran developing 'serious capability'
The U.S. first began to develop its own offensive capabilities 20 years ago when several strategic thinkers, particularly at the Naval Post-Graduate School, began to see the possibilities. It was not so much a strategic priority, but more "people familiar with electronics and hackers exercising their imagination." (Borg says one of those thinkers, Winn Schwartau, used fiction to discuss the threat and the possibilities, in a 1991 book, "Terminal Compromise.")
While the U.S. has the means to respond and to defend itself, Borg notes that some countries have no recourse. He cited the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia in August 2008, when the Georgian government and media infrastructure was quickly compromised.
What was particularly interesting, Borg said, was that the Russian military and intelligence services weren’t directly involved.
"The first wave was carried by organized crime," he noted. "The second wave was carried out by a (hacker) group organized though social media.” He said Russian hackers could download the attack software from a variety of popular sites, including dating and gun-collecting websites.
In both cases, Borg concluded, the organizers apparently were tipped off early about the timing of Russian military operations, he said.
The attack on Georgia also illustrated another aspect of cyberwarfare, Borg said, noting that Georgia, Estonia and Lithuania afterward formed a cyberalliance, leaving them in a better position to deal with future assaults.
That also appears to be the case with Iran, which recently announced that it decided to establish cyber army and claimed to have 4,000 to 5,000 military personnel involved in defensive and offensive operations. That isn’t all bluster, Borg said, noting that when the U.S. leveled new sanctions on Iranian banks last year, U.S. banks suddenly came under attack.
"Iran is developing a serious capability," said Borg. “It's exaggerating the present capabilities, but it’s working toward the future."
That’s especially troubling because the risk of smaller nations waging cyberwar against one other may be higher than with the online superpowers, he said.
He cited reports indicating that Iran may have been behind what he called one of the more serious cyberattacks to date -- an assault last August on the Saudi Aramco computer network that disabled more than 30,000 computers used to control the flow of Saudi oil. The Saudi Interior Ministry blamed "foreign countries" for the attack.
Borg said he believes the attack was an "Iranian fundamentalist attack ... at some point loosely the under auspices of Iran, and blessed by Iran. The fundamentalist group made a claim of responsibility. ... “Based on technical analysis, the claim has credibility."
For that reason, Borg says he is less worried about the possibility of China or Russia launching a catastrophic attack against the U.S. than he is about the emerging cyberpowers.
“What I’m really concerned about isn’t Russia or China, but attacks from Iran or terrorist groups working with state actors,” he said.
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Leave a Comment:
It's Spy vs. Spy, right out of MAD magazine.
They wn't stop this at all coz & of course, they do whatever they feel right for the so-called anti-terrorism. No one is gonna stop them and if yes..how?? they use law.
It's high time to buy space plots for peace.
For the so-called anti-terrorism? WTF?????????????
OK.........So Hacking is legal as long as you're doing it for the government, but illegal if you do it on your own? Interesting........now we know who are the real criminals.
You just figured it out Mike. Most of us have known for years that those in Washington are the CRIMMINALS. They have been stealing from us taxpayers for all MY life, and then some.
Time to rid Washington DC of the CAREER POLITITIONS. Get the LIFERS out of there.
Hacking is not illegal. What is illegal is gaining access to systems without consent of the owner of those systems. Pen testing ( penetration testing ) uses hackers to deliberately try to break into systems to weed out vulnerabilities. Many companies hire hackers and phreakers and give them permission to do their best to break in to computer and phone networks to test security.
So, yeah, hacking just like a lot of other things only becomes a crime when you misuse your skills.
Kind of like when you misuse your lovemaking skills without your partner's consent...
If this was back in the 1940's I can see other countries would have something to fear from the US. As of today they as in other countries are the US. I see it where I work, they hire many foreigners to do IT work. Many of them can't even speak English too well. My one friend who was one of the best engineers did not get picked over another guy who was here on a work visa for a manager position.
Many of these foreign crap heads they hire still in many ways have very strong ties to their country of origin. I feel if we were to get attacked from a foreign country it would not happen that way to begin with. More a foreigner in our country will attack us within our own network.
What does America produce? We provide entertainment. Many of the young people today do not want to work or learn trades for a living. They want to play with the balls, any kind of ball. They want to sing and dance as well. We are becoming/became a nation of idiots.
I would say we should have taken care of business a long time ago with China, Russia and Iran when we were strong and had a great technological advantage. Now is not the time to do anything except hope they run the world the next hundred years better than what we did. They also will not give way to power like the U.S. has done..............better buy your Chinese flags now for that flag pole in the front yard.............
And exactly how should we have "taken care of business?"
willis-434882 - If we had taken care of business a long time ago with China when we were strong and had great technological advantage by not outsourcing our business and tech to China and other countries then we would be in so much better shape today. I won't get into Russia and Iran here--my comment would be too long! But nuking them was and is not a good idea.
Three Things:
1.) China made everything visible in the above picture.
2.) If we were to go to war with China, we would have to call a "time out", to wait for the ship loads of military stuff to arrive from China first, before we waged war with them because we don't make anything here anymore.
3.) this is really just another false flag way of disguising the true desire of our government to take away the true freedom of the internet as it is today.
And if you don't know this now, you should, All the banks in China are owned or run by Goldman Sachs, and all the businesses in China are supervised and advised by Goldman Sachs
Our gubberment is run by Goldman.
Actually it's run by a cabal of Wall Street financiers. You can't call them a conspiracy because conspirators, above all else, must be able to trust each other. You'll find these people's permanent records (if there is such a thing) just packed with phrases like "selfish", "greedy", "won't share", "doesn't play well with others", etc.
All you can trust them to do is stab you in the back if there's so much as a penny to be made from it.
The great inventions of the last century or so are the multi-speed bicycle, Tupperware, & solar panels. Electronic computers are just to fragile to be considered great inventions. A kid with a refrigerator magnet can wipe out your chips like the Marines had been there.
To get an idea how close we are to the 19th century, look up EMP (electro-magnetic pulse).
Aren't solar panels vulnerable to EMPs? If there is a way to protect them from EMPs, what is it?
As long as the U.S. keeps giving away their technologies to these 3rd world developing countries, the longer they will have to deal with the issues. Unfortunately, businesses in our country have no moral or ethical values to preserve our freedoms against foreign threat, they are only interested in greed. The sooner we "hog-tie" them, the better.
Worse, our businesses consider morals & ethics to be unrealistic, impractical, unprofitable, ideologies for fuzzy thinking, altruistc, "boy scouts". Suggesting we adopt morals & ethics will get you branded a left-wing, liberal, socialist, & even (gasp) communist (the Horror!).
Come on folks. China's no serious threat. The Japanese tried economic warfare back in the '80s, & imagine their surprise when their U.S. factories turned out more, & better. It's been nearly 30 years, & they still haven't completely recovered from the shock.
So now the Chinese are going to try to overwhelm us with quantity. However, as the 1991 Gulf was so clearly proved, quality is as much a factor as quantity. This won't end well for them.
Remember, without our markets, there's no place they can sell their crap with the kind of profit margins they're currently getting. All we have to do is insist all of our trading partners have, and enforce, regulations at least as liberal as the U.S. Dept of Labor. (Did you know you have the right to collective bargaining?) The price of imports will rapidly get so high it'll be cheaper to make things here.
Now for the gymnastics portion of the program where someone bends & twists logic to explain why more jobs for Americans is a bad thing.
@ Musican666
I am in agreement with a lot of your posts, but the part about the Chinese needing our markets is not the case anymore.
Both the Chinese and our group of US manufacturers which have so patriotically off-shored their manufacturing have many more options than the tapped out American consumer. The financiers have already saddled the American buyers with too much debt. Not to place all the blame on the banks, the consumers themselves over borrowed.
The emerging markets are now the new playground for both manufacturing and the financiers. The banks now have a whole new market to laden in debt.
Politicians use people's belief in God and the Bible to get elected and then swear on the Bible,but deny what the Bible really teaches about God: wars can't kill an evil person's soul or spirit,all souls and spirits are eternal,forever with God in His Kingdom,or forever separated from God in Hell/The Lake of Fire suffering torment forever,and only God can send a person's soul or spirit there,or accept them into God's Kingdom.So wars of guns and bombs can't kill evil.That's why the Cross and Gospel of Jesus Christ is so necessary.Wars create waste,waste of people and resources.And Jesus teaches to love your enemies,and Christians should,when you do you don't steal from them.
There is a piece of abandonware you can download called "Sygate", which was bought out by McAfee I think now it's complete garbage. Anyway, find it then install it and watch how many times a day your network gets pinged by China and Homeland Security. The program is a very good firewall and stops deep packet inspections while keeping a log of IP's. This cyberwar is older than they admit and we have been the losers the whole time. About 6 months ago the local Homeland training center admitted to being hacked. Anyone with Sygate had known that since they turned the first computers on there. Someone in China had complete control over the old AAFES computers and the first computers they installed at the FEMA and Homeland training centers. Instead of giving retired military a place to double and triple dip those jobs should be given to trained white hats and they should be recruiting black hats.
So anyway, when we assimilate into China, do we all get two weeks off at Chinese new Year and national health coverage for free?
Because at the rate this system is breaking down, those are salient questions.
And their women are pretty cute.
Just a matter of priorities, it is not that difficult. for critical systems use local manual control. Education we should spend less on college education and more on lower level (it would be nice if they could comprehend a sentence). Quit shipping resources like coal without a pollution tax to China. They would have higher energy costs for industry and the world would have cleaner air. This is about keeping it simple. Why should a control system computer need a thumb drive?
The civilian aspect of cyberwarfare is the one which holds the most promise for domestic defense, because they have an amazing depth of talent and they practically invented crowdsourcing.
Military hackers are often taught to do little more than take advantage of flaws built into software for their exclusive use; anyone naive enough to believe such things don't exist shouldn't even be talking on this topic.
That's one of the reasons there are domestic and international versions of Windows, and it's why Linux is gaining adherents in both corporate and private applications.
Civilians discovered how vulnerable Java was, they created most of the exploits in Windows, and they can even write machine code capable of compromising SOC firmware- and they are a largely untapped if often undisciplined asset.
An example of that was the Georgian attack mentioned above- where partisan hackers were quietly enlisted to launch their own attacks on the targets involved.
A partisan arm could create plausible deniability- and they comprise a well-defended, diverse, and widely scattered group of targets in the event of an attempted retaliation.
Military assets of this nature tend to be concentrated, making them an easier target than hundreds of people who can work from a laptop or even a tablet.
That localization made it possible to prove Chinese involvement- and how the Chinese hackers could find and attack the specific set of addresses upon which our military cyberwarfare units live.
Just a thought- but we need an element of diversity to make our national defenses more robust.
Just send them that FBI virus
Imagine a single day in the weeks to come...
You wake up and click on your computer to find the Internet is down, or working very slow. You attempt a few emails but they come back undeliverable and a suggestion that you "try later". You get a call from work from your assistant manager telling you the Internet is down. You tell him your aware it is as you just try to log on and it's also happening at your house. You head in to work early to head off the problem. First thing you notice that is out of the ordinary is the traffic lights at every intersection are flashing or completely out and traffic is stop and go at one car at a time taking turns to get through the intersections. Something else catches your eye that seems unusual. While passing gas stations you notice there are lines of cars at the pumps with people out of their cars discussing something. Looking at your gas gauge you realize you need gas and pull in to see what is going on. Parking your car you walk over to Quikie Mart where people are now gathered. The door to the store is locked with a note written by the clerk inside that reads "system temporarily down - no gas available". At the pumps people are attempting to swipe their credit cards only to find the pump reads "see attendant inside". They are also talking on their cell phones at the same time calling work to tell them they'll be coming in late while also learning the computers are down and no need to hurry. With a little calculating you start to see a pattern forming but can't be sure so you proceed on to work without gas. Upon arriving at the freeway on ramp you notice complete gridlock that is more than usual. The on ramp traffic lights are down and cars are jamming the onramps. Seeing on ahead how bad the traffic is you decide to take an alternate route to work using the bak streets only to find now the cars and traffic has doubled at all intersections due to the morning commute and the traffic lights not working.
Calling work again you find the computers are still down and decide to tell your assistant manager to start sending employees home if the system doesn't come back up in the next hour. With the day off you attempt to make your way back home but before you do you decide to stop off at the local grocery store to grab some food for the day. When you get to the super market you see people in the form of a crowd outside the store. Apparently the with the computers down also is the system that takes debit cards and credit cards for purchases. Wit the majority of people no longer carrying cash on them the store is only allowing those in with cash or not at all due to a few customers unable to obtain cash from their ATMs have ran from the store with food. It is at this point you realize the seriousness of the situation and decide to find the closest ATM to see if you can withdraw some cash. Finding an ATM without a line of people should prove challenging. When you find an ATM there are people in line who are all trying their cards only to get a receipt back with no cash that says "please contact your bank". With no cash on hand you decide to go directly to your bank only to find masses of people in the lot out of their cars and at the bank entrance. Most are pacing back and forth with cell phones in hand looking almost "inconvenienced" all calling family members to find what their situation is and if they are able to obtain any cash. Asking someone at the end of the line what the situation is you learn the bank is closed due to the system is down. A few people at the head of the line can see bank employees inside and are trying to get their attention by banging on the glass. The bank employees are told to ignore the customers as their is nothing they can do for them til the system comes back up. Some outside realize there is nothing the bank can do for them and decide to retreat while others less educated see the bank as nothing but a vault with their money in it are demanding the doors be open and demanding their cash from what they have in the vault. The banging on the glass turns to pounding on the glass til the sound of a window breaking can be heard. Once one window is broken another is broken and the crowd surges forward through the bank windows. Deciding this is not the solution you decide to go home and see what's happening on TV around the city, the state and the possible the nation but you find the traffic is at a complete standstill with no one moving at all. Those that can not maneuver any further have resorted to parking their cars and walking. It is at this point you see something you've never witnessed before. People of all walks of life walking in all directions. From people in business suits to Moms with kids and strollers, to middle school and high school kids of all shades and colors walking. There is a dead silence that is almost creepy in that even with everyone sharing the same overall problem the majority of people choose not to speak to each other but instead talk on their cell phones while they walk. The conversations you over hear as you walk range from panic, to confusion, to worry, to threatening, to swearing and so on. Again rather than band together and communicate the majority choose to go at it alone and only talk to family members.
When arriving home you find the power is out so you have no way of getting an update on what is going on. With little battery time on your cell you need to conserve the use of your cell pone til you can find a source of power to recharge it. Looking at what food you have in the house your first order of business is to remove a few items from the refrigerator that have already started melting causing water to run down onto the kitchen floor. You decide to eat as much cold storage as you can so it won't go to waste. With no power you need to do all cooking on the BBQ. You find all your neighbors are home and with no form of media you must rely on each other for any information available. It is then you find the magnitude of the situation and that this was a direct hit cyber attack on the entire country. That not only were all the banks records hit but also the transportation. From airline travel to rails all transportation is at a standstill meaning no transport of food or fuel for days to come.
With night approaching you find you are without candles, batteries or anything to see in the dark. The night is spent going to bed early as there is nothing else to do. When you wake up you hope to see power restored only to find another day ahead without any electricity. With no way of gettin info other than your neighbor you start to rely in each other more. You get to know them a little better in conversation, where they're from, how old their kids are, what they like to do for a living. For the first time you are alone as a homeless man or woman. You are scared and you are finally "HUMAN"..
No fancy cars, No business suit, No proper hair cut, No big screen tv, No boats, No Jetskis, No dirt bikes or any other crap that made you who you thought you were. You are all alone and all dependant on each other for the first time in your life. Unless you hunt or know how to survive off the land you are pretty much screwed. The banks may never reopen, your debit cards are useless, you have little that is worth anyting of value to anyone. You now see your most valued posessions are water, batteries, candles, flashlights, propane and food. You are now one with what it is like to be a homeless man or woman. The only difference is you have shelter but all and all you are one in the same expcept the homeless knows more on how to survive...
More like: "power fails, food deliveries stop, and every major city is largely burned to the ground within 5 days by armed rabble squabbling over the few remaining assets".
Fortunately, the nightmare scenario you just described isn't even remotely possible.
Boldface type is hard to read. Here it is again:
Imagine a single day in the weeks to come...
You wake up and click on your computer to find the Internet is down, or working very slow. You attempt a few emails but they come back undeliverable and a suggestion that you "try later". You get a call from work from your assistant manager telling you the Internet is down. You tell him your aware it is as you just try to log on and it's also happening at your house. You head in to work early to head off the problem. First thing you notice that is out of the ordinary is the traffic lights at every intersection are flashing or completely out and traffic is stop and go at one car at a time taking turns to get through the intersections. Something else catches your eye that seems unusual. While passing gas stations you notice there are lines of cars at the pumps with people out of their cars discussing something. Looking at your gas gauge you realize you need gas and pull in to see what is going on. Parking your car you walk over to Quikie Mart where people are now gathered. The door to the store is locked with a note written by the clerk inside that reads "system temporarily down - no gas available". At the pumps people are attempting to swipe their credit cards only to find the pump reads "see attendant inside". They are also talking on their cell phones at the same time calling work to tell them they'll be coming in late while also learning the computers are down and no need to hurry. With a little calculating you start to see a pattern forming but can't be sure so you proceed on to work without gas. Upon arriving at the freeway on ramp you notice complete gridlock that is more than usual. The on ramp traffic lights are down and cars are jamming the onramps. Seeing on ahead how bad the traffic is you decide to take an alternate route to work using the bak streets only to find now the cars and traffic has doubled at all intersections due to the morning commute and the traffic lights not working.
Calling work again you find the computers are still down and decide to tell your assistant manager to start sending employees home if the system doesn't come back up in the next hour. With the day off you attempt to make your way back home but before you do you decide to stop off at the local grocery store to grab some food for the day. When you get to the super market you see people in the form of a crowd outside the store. Apparently the with the computers down also is the system that takes debit cards and credit cards for purchases. Wit the majority of people no longer carrying cash on them the store is only allowing those in with cash or not at all due to a few customers unable to obtain cash from their ATMs have ran from the store with food. It is at this point you realize the seriousness of the situation and decide to find the closest ATM to see if you can withdraw some cash. Finding an ATM without a line of people should prove challenging. When you find an ATM there are people in line who are all trying their cards only to get a receipt back with no cash that says "please contact your bank". With no cash on hand you decide to go directly to your bank only to find masses of people in the lot out of their cars and at the bank entrance. Most are pacing back and forth with cell phones in hand looking almost "inconvenienced" all calling family members to find what their situation is and if they are able to obtain any cash. Asking someone at the end of the line what the situation is you learn the bank is closed due to the system is down. A few people at the head of the line can see bank employees inside and are trying to get their attention by banging on the glass. The bank employees are told to ignore the customers as their is nothing they can do for them til the system comes back up. Some outside realize there is nothing the bank can do for them and decide to retreat while others less educated see the bank as nothing but a vault with their money in it are demanding the doors be open and demanding their cash from what they have in the vault. The banging on the glass turns to pounding on the glass til the sound of a window breaking can be heard. Once one window is broken another is broken and the crowd surges forward through the bank windows. Deciding this is not the solution you decide to go home and see what's happening on TV around the city, the state and the possible the nation but you find the traffic is at a complete standstill with no one moving at all. Those that can not maneuver any further have resorted to parking their cars and walking. It is at this point you see something you've never witnessed before. People of all walks of life walking in all directions. From people in business suits to Moms with kids and strollers, to middle school and high school kids of all shades and colors walking. There is a dead silence that is almost creepy in that even with everyone sharing the same overall problem the majority of people choose not to speak to each other but instead talk on their cell phones while they walk. The conversations you over hear as you walk range from panic, to confusion, to worry, to threatening, to swearing and so on. Again rather than band together and communicate the majority choose to go at it alone and only talk to family members.
When arriving home you find the power is out so you have no way of getting an update on what is going on. With little battery time on your cell you need to conserve the use of your cell pone til you can find a source of power to recharge it. Looking at what food you have in the house your first order of business is to remove a few items from the refrigerator that have already started melting causing water to run down onto the kitchen floor. You decide to eat as much cold storage as you can so it won't go to waste. With no power you need to do all cooking on the BBQ. You find all your neighbors are home and with no form of media you must rely on each other for any information available. It is then you find the magnitude of the situation and that this was a direct hit cyber attack on the entire country. That not only were all the banks records hit but also the transportation. From airline travel to rails all transportation is at a standstill meaning no transport of food or fuel for days to come.
With night approaching you find you are without candles, batteries or anything to see in the dark. The night is spent going to bed early as there is nothing else to do. When you wake up you hope to see power restored only to find another day ahead without any electricity. With no way of getting info other than your neighbor you start to rely in each other more. You get to know them a little better in conversation, where they're from, how old their kids are, what they like to do for a living. For the first time you are alone as a homeless man or woman. You are scared and you are finally "HUMAN"..
No fancy cars, No business suit, No proper hair cut, No big screen tv, No boats, No Jetskis, No dirt bikes or any other crap that made you who you thought you were. You are all alone and all dependent on each other for the first time in your life. Unless you hunt or know how to survive off the land you are pretty much screwed. The banks may never reopen, your debit cards are useless, you have little that is worth anything of value to anyone. You now see your most valued possessions are water, batteries, candles, flashlights, propane and food. You are now one with what it is like to be a homeless man or woman. The only difference is you have shelter but all and all you are one in the same except the homeless knows more on how to survive...
right now...100% tax on all chinese goods...this is why we are in trouble ......the rich businessman in America wanted to cut out union wages so they could maximize there profits.IN the last 20 years the businessman made more prophets then they ever did in history on the backs of the America middle class........i guess you could say the American rich upper class helped to fund the Chinese military
What no story from the media showing the President having to make a 2% cut in spending. If he (Republicans and Democrats) can not cut 2% in their spending, they should all be thrown out. People across the country have cut our budgets way more than that. Instead he says that the world will come to an end.....even though this it was his idea.
Oblamer thought he could get the house to agree to more TAXES, glad they are standing firm on that issue. The Democrats need to come up with some SERIOUS cuts to spending or let there sequestor hit. Oblamer is the one that created this manmade crisis.
thats what you get for sending all are jobs to china....and they don't want to pay their fair share.....
The main goal here is to keep us scared. Frankly I am sick of this crap what ever happened to freedom of speech.
I said that about freedom of speech because nbcnews wouldn't allow me to type in [@!$%#e] no matter how you spell it it nbcnews won't allow "s", "h", "i", "t", "e".
Intelligent people can express their thoughts without resorting to offensive words.
try it this way $hit or $hite You are welcome.
NBCnews is not the US government, and the Supreme Court has found many times over that a private (non-governmental) agency can limit free speech.
Forgive me, but wasn't it the USA (along with Israel) that planted Stuxnet on Iranian computers? And now our side is calling foul when others contemplate doing the same thing to us?
This is all smoke and mirrors - another prelude to more draconian laws to control the internet Genie that's eroded our "Master's" hold on information.
I'm now waiting for the false flag computer attack to come on cue.
If China subjects us to cyber attacks, we could devastate their economy (and ours) by stopping buying their stuff. If we are subjected to cyber attacks by Iran, should we impose the same sanctions we already impose a a result of their nuclear activity, or different sanctions?
Since the US owns the internet, we should be able to block anyone we want. The government and infrastructure systems should not be on the internet, but should be under a revitalized DarpaNet.
And we should send technical 'bombs' to where ever the hackers are, followed up with a drone attack.
And we should out whoever it is, person or country.
Our military and government should go back to AUTODIN.
An acronym for automatic digital network should be pronounced with a short "i" as in digital, I would think. But if it were pronounced with a long "i" as in kite it would sound very similar to Cyberdyne, which is reminiscent of the Terminator movies. That in turn leads to all kinds of fun thoughts! "It was Skynet! Somehow it got smart...and just...took over."
I would assume that most of this is some kind of propoganda by our govt to let CHina know that we know wtf there doing. We may not have as many people as them but we do have some of the best computer geeks in the world (remember Al Gore invented the internet) and we pretty much created most of the code. I would assume that our cyber spy's are better than there's at the current moment. Would be hilarious if a cyber-war started, KILL SKYNET!
The Chinese only develop advanced weapon systems if they can steal them. Through cyber warfare they have done just that. If you look at their most advanced weapons you'll see an alarming similarity between our systems and their systems.
So much so that it's a sign of their past successes.
This is where the U.S. falls behind other nations in education and developing it's cyber warriors. With the lackluster performance of today's students the next generation will be wide-open to serious cyber warfare compromise.
Go to school and learn the most you can. Take the initiative and study/research computer sciences, math and physics. Your life may depend on it in 10 years.
Perhaps if we'd outsourced our F-35 program to China, it would have been delivered on time and on budget...