Syndicate: 'Infowarfare' part of NATO arsenal?

[ne@numeral.com (John F. Simon, Jr.) (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

Hey Andreas -

I don't know if you caught this snippet of arrogance
on the Ziff-Davis news feed but thought you'd like it.

I have been following the Syndicate postings quite closely.

My brother's wife's parents live in Novi Sad and we have
had quite a time getting news.

Surely this is the Syndicate List's finest hour......

JFSjr
one@numeral.com

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'Infowarfare' part of NATO arsenal?

By Maria Seminerio
03/25/99 06:30:00 PM

How lessons learned from hackers are playing part in strikes against
Yugolslavia.
 The barrage of cruise missiles raining down on Yugoslavia in the ongoing
NATO offensive is only the most visible element of the campaign. Behind the
scenes, military technologists are using 'infowar' tactics borrowed from
hackers to disrupt the Serbian telecommunications infrastructure.

While infowar can describe everything from cracking into a military computer
network to disabling an enemy nation's telephone system, in the case of the
Serbian conflict, NATO's efforts are likely to be targeted more at radar
transmissions than at Web-connected computers, according to military experts.

That's because Yugoslavia has little in the way of an Internet
infrastructure, and its military isn't likely to be using the Web to
communicate.

"The question is, how dependent is your adversary on the Net, and my sense here
is, not a lot," said Hal Gershanoff, publisher and editor of the Journal of
Electronic Defense in Norwood, Mass.

 "This is groundwork that was laid months ago," he said. "The places they are
 going to bomb have to be mapped out."

 One self-described hacker agreed.  "I don't think Serbia has enough of a
computer network to target," said the author  of the 1998 book "Maximum
Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting your Internet Site or Network."
The hacker, who published the book as "Anonymous," said NATO is certainly
"jamming a lot of radio transmissions."

 A spokesperson for the Pentagon refused to comment on the NATO strategy,
saying such tactics are top-secret during a continuing conflict.  Preparing
for the big push? Infowarfare tactics are critical to reconnaissance prior
to a bombing attack, said Mark Fabro, worldwide director of assessment
services at Secure Computing Corp.

 "You need to be able to extract certain elements of information to disrupt
radio frequencies or telephone service," said Fabro, who has served as a
remote server security consultant to the Pentagon.

 The process of mapping out those locations is a combination of
old-fashioned military reconnaissance and high-tech hacking. NATO forces
need to find out where Serbian munitions are stored -- which could be as
simple as getting tips from locals about military vehicle traffic -- but
they also need to target "IT-dependent sites," said Frank Cilluffo,
director of the information warfare task force at the Center for Strategic
& International Studies, a military think tank in Washington, D.C.

  "We'll go after command and control sites, but strictly through
munitions," said Cilluffo. He said he does not believe NATO would
specifically target the Serbian IT infrastructure, such as it is, because
such an action would open NATO nations up to cyber counter-attacks.

"We have lots more to lose than they do if we go that route," he said.
"Then we expose our own IT infrastructure."