Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

On the Rules of Engagement for Information Warfare

The militarisation of corporate behviour reaches another milestone, with the release of IT security software which uses "active countermeasures". Effectively this means hacking back at the hackers.

Symbiot Security are touting a product that "can both repel hostile attacks on enterprise networks and accurately identify the malicious attackers in order to plan and execute appropriate countermeasures � effectively fighting fire with fire."

Read Symbiot's white paper, which discusses "the strategies and tactics for active self-defense; refined by thousands of years of warfare, diplomacy, and legal recourse".

[The likelihood that intermediary systems, such as Web Proxies, will be adversely affected by "countermeasures" such as a return Denial of Service, is surely very high. The possibilities for "collateral damage" seem not to matter here, either.]

Not only is this software becoming available, some are forecasting its judicial and competitive use:

"Governments could soon be using hacker tools for law enforcement and the pursuit of justice... denial of service attacks (DoS) and packet-blocking technology will be employed by nation states to enforce their laws. This could even include attacks on companies based in other countries"

There is an interesting research paper by this "forecaster" which explores the ramifications more formally.

A distributed DoS attack is ironically likened to the "death penalty" by the author, in that an "offending" internet service may be permanently taken off-air by government order. There is rightly a developing sense of concern over the adoption of such powers by states and corporations, especially given the cavalier approach to "diplomacy" that the more powerful states employ.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 11:59 am ::