Chicago Traffic Control Center Fire: Australia Has a Good Idea

First, the good news. Nobody died. The suicidal employee who destroyed a key air traffic control center near Chicago, Illinois, has charged with one count of "destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities."

Now, the not-so-good news. Almost 2,000 flights were cancelled. Chicago's O'Hare and Midway International Airports are among the busiest in the world. I've read that flight schedules are still getting unsnarled.

Brian Howard probably had a reason for destroying part of Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZAU)'s data transmission system, and then trying to kill himself. My guess is that at this point, he's the only person who knows why he acted as he did.

Maybe he was despondent over his coming transfer to Hawaii. From Chicago. With winter coming on. Or maybe not.

Air Traffic Control in the 21st Century

(Air traffic control: 1962 and 2006.)

More good news: the FAA's control center used fiber optics and data cable to carry radar signals, digitized radio transmissions, and other critical information. While figuring out how to rebuild the Chicago center, the FAA won't have to learn how to use Information Age tech.

I'm also relieved to learn that the FAA was able to switch control of ZAU's territory to another control center in the area. It would have been nice if it had taken less time: but 'next day' transfer is better than 'next week.'

Predictably, politicos have started declaring that they'll 'investigate' what happened. My hope is that folks with a clue can keep them from doing too much damage.

I also hope that the FAA decides to take a long, hard, look at setting up functional redundancies. This wouldn't have to be a complete duplicate of ZAU, sitting idle unless there was an emergency. I understand that Australia has 'duplicate' air traffic control centers: at opposite ends of the country.

The United States should be able to follow that example: maybe five 'big' centers: in Alaska, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Washington DC-New York City megalopolis.

I'm pretty sure that setting up cross-training, so that controllers in one center would have some familiarity with the other four; and protocols for transferring data; would take time and effort to set up. But I think the results would be worthwhile.

Related posts:

• "Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: This Time it's Over Land"
  (July 18, 2014)
• "Washington Navy Shipyard: Death, Security, and Voices"
  (September 17, 2013)
• "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
  (May 31, 2011)
• "Euronews, " 'Dustbin' Airline," Cultures, and the War on Terror"
  (July 2, 2009)
• "Florida Power Outage: Not an Attack; But a Reasonable Preview"
  (February 26, 2008)

---

¹ Excerpt from the news:

" Air-Traffic Vulnerabily Examined in Fire Halting Flights"
Alan Levin, Bloomberg (September 28, 2014)

"The havoc created by a suicidal technician at a Chicago-area flight-control center has some lawmakers asking how a single person armed with gasoline and knives could bring down part of the U.S. air-traffic system.

"Damage caused last week by a man police said was trying to disable the facility and kill himself was so severe that the Federal Aviation Administration has decided to rebuild the center’s central nerve system from scratch, the agency said in an e-mail.

" 'The fact that one person can do this indicates there is a problem in our system and we need to take a careful look at this,' Representative Dan Lipinski, a Democrat from Chicago who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in an interview with a Chicago TV station....

"...Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said 'This is one of the most challenging situations that air traffic controllers and other FAA employees have faced since 9/11.'

" 'The damage to this critical facility is unlike anything we have seen before,' Rinaldi said in an e-mail.

"The arsonist targeted an area containing the data transmission system that drives modern air traffic, according to an affidavit filed in court by a FBI agent.

"Fiber optics and data cable carry everything from radar signals showing aircraft locations to the digitized radio transmissions that allow controllers to talk to pilots. Without it, FAA centers can't function.

"While that data system in some ways makes air-traffic centers more vulnerable to an attack, it also lets the FAA more easily transfer responsibility for controlling flights to other facilities, said Hansman, who has studied the FAA's system....

"...A day after the fire, controllers at a similar center controlling high-altitude traffic near Indianapolis began handling flights in some Chicago Center’s airways, Doug Church, a spokesman for the air-traffic controllers union, said in an e-mail. Controllers at centers near Cleveland, Minneapolis and Kansas City were doing the same thing, Church said.

"The FAA was sending Chicago center controllers to other area facilities to work traffic because of their knowledge of local flight routes, the FAA said in a Sept. 27 e-mail.

" 'The FAA is using all the tools at its disposal to safely restore as much service as quickly as possible,' the agency said.

"Newer telecommunication technology means that controllers no longer have to be located next to the radio antenna and radar to handle traffic, Hansman said.

"In Australia, the government has built two air-traffic centers on opposite ends of the country that can each handle the other's traffic in an emergency, he said. While the U.S. facilities can't switch as seamlessly, they are more flexible than just a few years ago, he said...."

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: This Time it's Over Land

(From Reuters, used w/o permission)
("Debris is pictured at the site of Thursday's Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash, near the village of Grabovo in the Donetsk region July 18, 2014."
(Reuters))

The good news is that nobody, as far as I have heard, is claiming what happened to Malaysia Airlines MH17 as a glorious victory or heroic act. Remarkably, the outfits most likely to have shot another airliner out of the sky are saying 'it wasn't us.'

They may be right.

Killing nearly three hundred folks whose greatest offense seems to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't good public relations. Not these days.

People, 'Important' and Otherwise

(From Valentyn Ogirenko, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"People light candles at the Dutch embassy for victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine, in Kiev July 17, 2014"
(Reuters))

More than half of the folks killed yesterday lived in the Netherlands. That's no surprise, since they were traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

At least one body went through someone's roof, but happily nobody on the ground was killed: as far as I have heard. Folks working for Malaysia Airlines and the various governments involved are probably still trying to sort out who was actually on the flight. So far, it looks like folks from 11 countries won't be going home. Not alive, anyway:

• Dutch: 189
• Malaysian: 44
  • Including 15 crew, 2 infants)
• Australian: 27
• Indonesian: 12
  • Including 1 infant
• United Kingdom: 9
• Belgium: 4
• Germany: 4
• Philippines: 3
• New Zealand: 1
• Canadian: 1
• American: 1
  (Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014))

News coverage, understandably, concentrates on what folks with titles are saying: and on the "important" folks who stopped living yesterday. I found one news service that gave a list of the folks who have been tentatively identified as being on MH17. Instead of breaking out the names by country, as they did, I've put the names in alphabetical order, by 'first name.' The article didn't give names for some of the children:

• Ahmad Hakimi Bin Hanapi
• Albert Rizk
• Ali Md Salim
• Andrei Anghel
• Angeline Premila Rajandaran
• Azrina Binti Yakob
• Ben Pocock
• Bujanto Gunawan
• Cameron Dalziel
• Chong Yee Pheng
• Darryl Dwight Gunawan
• Dora Shamila Binti Kassim
• Elaine Teoh
• Emiel Mahler
• Eugene Choo Jin Leong
• Frankie Davison
• Glenn Thomas
• Hamfazlin Sham Binti Mohamed Arifin
• Irene Gunawan
• Jill Guard
• Joep Lange
• John Alder
• Jolette Nuesink
• Karlijn Keijzer
• Lee Hui Pin
• Liam Davison
• Liam Sweeney
• Liliane Derden
• Lucie van Mens
• Maree Rizk
• Martine de Schutter
• Mastura Binti Mustafa
• Mohd Ghafar Bin Abu Bakar
• Muhamad Firdaus Bin Abdul Rahim
• Nick Norris
  • Grandchild Evie
  • Grandchild Mo
  • Grandchild Otis
• Peter Nuesink
  • Nuesink child
  • Nuesink child
• Pim de Kuijer
• Puan Sri Siti Amirah
• Quinn Lucas Schansman
• Richard Mayne
• Roger Guard
• Sanjid Singh Sandhu
• Shaikh Mohd Noor Bin Mahmood
• Shazana Salleh
• Sherryl Shania Gunawa
• Sister Philomene Tiernan
• Wan Amran Bin Wan Hussin
• Willem Witteveen
  (Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014))

By any reasonable standard, this is a very sad situation for many families.

Now, some 'big picture' stuff.

World Leaders, Families, and Today's World

"World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead"
Anton Zverev, Reuters (July 18, 2014)

"U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Russia stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine after the downing of a Malaysian airline by a surface-to-air missile he said was fired from rebel territory raised the prospect of more sanctions on Moscow.

"At least one American was among the almost 300 killed, he said, a revelation that raises the stakes in a pivotal incident in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West....

"...But, noting the global impact of the crash, with victims from 11 countries across four continents, he said the stakes were high for Europe, a clear call for it to follow the more robust sanctions on Russia already imposed by Washington.

"Russia, whom Obama said was letting the rebels bring in weapons, has expressed anger at implications it was to blame, saying people should not prejudge the outcome of the inquiry.

"There were no survivors from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, a Boeing 777. The United Nations said 80 of the 298 aboard were children. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner, it scattered bodies over miles of rebel-held territory near the border with Russia...."

As far as I can tell: some folks in Ukraine who were doing well in their 'good old days' want to get back in power; at least some Russian leaders want Ukraine back in Russian hands; and quite a few Ukrainians want to run their own country.

I'm inclined to sympathize with my counterparts in Ukraine: 'unimportant' folks who want to raise their families; vote in elections that aren't rigged; and live without having their 'betters' deciding what they should buy, and who they should deal with.

The situation in Ukraine is not simple. Folks have been living there for nearly three dozen millennia. About a thousand years back, from the time of Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь to Ярослав Мудрий's death, descendants of the Væringjar ruled the most powerful state in Europe. Things went downhill after that, and that's another topic.

The point is that, after tens of thousands of years: Ukraine has a rich cultural, economic, political, and religious heritage: and no shortage of soreheads, in which respect they resemble people everywhere.

There's a lively blame game going on, but all I can be sure of today is that nearly three hundred people are dead.

I think it's possible, perhaps even likely, that this massive tragedy was an accident of sorts. Some trigger-happy fool or paranoid field commander may have mistaken the airliner for something else: a guided missile, flock of birds, whatever.

I don't know what happened. Ukrainians may lose their country — again. And a whole lot of families are mourning.

I do know that this isn't the world I grew up in. In some ways, it's better. We still have petty tyrants, clueless leaders, a scattering of wise people, and the usual assortment of oddballs. But I think many folks have realized that John Donne was right: we're all connected, part of humanity.

The Other Malaysia Airlines Disaster

(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)

"Missing Malaysia plane: What we know"
BBC News (June 26, 2014)

"Mystery continues to surround the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.
"Investigators have identified a new search area 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the west coast of Australia, covering an area of some 60,000 sq km.

"The latest zone is some 1,000km south west of the area which was extensively searched with underwater surveying equipment in April.

"Work will resume in August and take up to a year to complete.

"Malaysian authorities, assisted by international aviation and satellite experts, are continuing their attempts to piece together the plane's final hours and explain what happened to its 239 passengers and crew. Some preliminary details were released on 1 May in a short report...."

Today's information technology isn't universally loved, putting it mildly. Some folks I know complain about social media: in, ironically, social media. I like living in the Information Age, because today's tech helps me find nuggets of wisdom in the mountains of gibberish.

Folks can still get 'lost without a trace,' but many aircraft now 'talk' to satellites and ground stations: independently of the human pilots: giving technophobes something to fear, and searchers something to work with.

These "handshakes" give searchers more information about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 than they'd have had in my 'good old days.'

That globe, from BBC News, shows several "handshakes." The last full handshake happened at 08:11. (0:11 GMT) An event recorded a few minutes later, at 8:19, may have been a partial handshake: a request from the aircraft to log on. That request may have happened while the airliner's communications system was rebooting.

Eventually, airlines and global traffic control systems may keep lines of communications open throughout a flight: giving an airliner's avionics a chance to ask for help, if something happens to the humans on board. And that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Questions; Speculation; and a Few Facts"
  (March 16, 2014)
• "Ukraine in a Changing World"
  (February 27, 2014)
• "TWA Flight 800, Assumptions, and Facts"
  (June 20, 2013)
• "Kiev Police: When Crowd Control Goes Horribly Wrong"
  (December 1, 2013)
• "Dozens Dead at Domodedovo - Observations and Opinions"
  (January 25, 2011)

In the news:

• "Malaysia Airlines MH17 Victims List, Including Roger Guard, Sanjid Singh, Tomas Allard, Nick Norris [Updated]"
  Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014)
• "World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead"
  Anton Zverev, Reuters (July 18, 2014)
• "Missing Malaysia plane: What we know"
  BBC News (June 26, 2014)

Washington Navy Shipyard: Death, Security, and Voices

What happened at the Washington Navy Shipyard yesterday morning is starting to look less like a terrorist attack, and more like what the CDC calls workplace violence:

• "Occupational Violence"
  Workplace Safety & Health Topics;
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH);
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

After killing a dozen people, Aaron Alexis was killed in a confrontation with authorities. Families are mourning their dead, law enforcement and national security outfits are working at sorting out what happened and why, and journalists are cranking out copy for news services.¹

News and Views

I don't have a boss and a deadline, for which I'm duly grateful. I suspect that many reporters aren't as daft as their work suggests.

When your job depends on submitting a fixed number of words in less than enough time, researching a story could be difficult. Add to that the knowledge that editors expect to see 'proof' that whatever happened supports their preferred reality: I'm glad I'm not a journalist.

Happily, we no longer depend on old-school information gatekeepers. And that's another topic. (August 14, 2009)

I won't pretend to be "unbiased" in the sense of having underlying set of assumptions about reality. I do, however, try to distinguish between facts and assumptions. More topics.

He Heard Voices

It's possible that someone used Aaron Alexis, exploiting his reported mental problems. The Associated Press says he'd been treated for paranoia, had trouble sleeping and heard voices in his head. Someone like that could be encouraged to act against his own best interests.

Someone may be trying to convince others that Aaron Alexis was sent by the CIA, Big Oil, Al Qaeda, or lizard men. I don't think so, but I'm one of those folks who enjoy conspiracy theories in fiction: not as a basis for public policy

Applying Occam's Razor, I think it's much more likely that Aaron Alexis acted alone.

On the other hand, I hope that investigators are looking very carefully at Mr. Alexis' life, particularly the last few years. I don't think lizard men are behind those deaths: but as I said, someone could have used Aaron Alexis as a weapon.

Security

Aaron Alexis almost certainly got into one building using an employee pass, but had to shoot his way into another. The pass he apparently used was either his own, or one he shouldn't have had.

I've seen both possibilities reported as facts. Like I said, I don't have a boss and editors telling me what to write: so I don't know if he had a pass, and if so whose it was.

Either way, he shouldn't have been able to get onto a naval base with those weapons. Apparently employees don't have to go through a metal detector on their way in. That may have saved some money, and kept "privacy advocates" happy: but in this case it was a lethal oversight.

After what happened yesterday, it's obvious that Mr. Alexis shouldn't have been allowed into the Washington Naval Shipyard yesterday. He probably shouldn't have been allowed to get a job with a subcontractor that brought him to the base in the first place.

That's obvious today. How obvious it would have been when he was hired: I don't know.

Mr. Alexis' general discharge from the Navy was upgraded to an honorable discharge because there wasn't enough evidence backing up misconduct charges. Maybe the charges were bogus, and he really is a victim of discrimination: maybe not. I don't know.

However, if half of what's been reported about his background is accurate, Aaron Alexis shouldn't have been given clearance to work on computer upgrades at a major military base. With my background, I probably wouldn't get that sort of clearance: even if I had the necessary skills.

Computers, Guns, and Keeping Up

Since Aaron Alexis was working with The Experts on a computer upgrade, it's possible that he had the skills and access necessary to provide himself with a valid-looking employee pass that he shouldn't have had. If that's the case, The Experts, Hewlett Packard and the Pentagon should take a hard look at their security.

We use technology today that was literally science fiction in my youth. Thanks to my eclectic job history, I've kept up with most of the major developments. Folks my age, whose successful career paths led them to positions of importance? I'm not sure that some of them really understand the Information Age. Still more topics.

Unlike some of my contemporaries, I like tech: and think that people use tools to do things, not the other way around.

Technology and Free Will

I don't think guns made a sleep-deprive paranoiac kill a dozen people. Human beings were quite capable of acting badly for uncounted ages before firearms, and I think we'll continue to be trouble when an assault rifle is displayed alongside a crossbow and a palstave in some museum.

I have no problem with people using dangerous technology like LP gas, guns, or computers. I also think that every society needs to find common-sense ways to control how they're used. (June 27, 2008)

Somewhat-related posts:

• Humans
  • "Washington Navy Shipyard: Monday Morning's Off to a Bad Start"
    (September 16, 2013)
  • "Using a Machete in a Global Civilization"
    (May 23, 2013)
  • "Bombs, Berserk Vendors, and Getting a Grip"
    (January 20, 2012)
  • "Infected Killer Robots! Unstoppable Virus!! MILITARY DENIAL!!!!!!!!!? No, not exactly"
    (October 8, 2011)
  • "Norway: Oslo, the Island of Utoya, Dead Bodies, Bad Motives"
    (July 24, 2011)
• Technology
  • "Dangerous Technology and Common Sense"
    (April 6, 2010)
  • "Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (February 20, 2009)
  • "Non-Lethal Weapons"
    (March 6, 2008)
  • "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People"
    (June 27, 2008)
    Particularly
    • Individual Freedom: a Treasure
  • "EEEK! Guns! Hoplophobia and Foreign Policy"
    (December 23, 2007)
• Me
  • "Egypt, Opinions, and Cautious Optimism"
    (August 25, 2013)
  • "Sin, Outrage, and Making Sense"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (May 5, 2013)
  • "Boston Marathon Bombing: Sauntering Through the News"
    (May 1, 2013)
  • "Playing 'Victim;' Living in a Big World"
    (March 13, 2012)
  • "Brilliant, Talented, and On Medication"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (November 30, 2010)

---

¹ From the news:

(FBI, via CNN, used w/o permission.)
"The FBI identified Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old military contractor from Texas, as the dead suspect involved in the shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, September 16. Authorities said at least 12 people -- and the suspect -- were killed in the shooting."

"Vetting military contractors: How did Navy Yard gunman get in?"
Josh Levs, with Drew Griffin, Mariano Castillo; CNN (September 17, 2013)

"The shooter at the Washington Navy Yard had a 'pattern of misconduct' as a Navy reservist, had sporadic run-ins with the law, and had contacted two Veterans Administration hospitals for apparent psychological issues, sources have told CNN.

"Somehow, none of that prevented Aaron Alexis from getting clearance to the Washington Navy Yard as a subcontractor.

"In the wake of the horrific incident that left 12 victims and the gunman dead, lawmakers and military experts are calling out the vetting process for contractors and subcontractors. Did the military even know the things about Alexis that news agencies managed to find out within hours?

"Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who serves on the Intelligence Committee, said she now questions 'the kind of vetting contractors do.'

" 'Washington needs a lot more answers,' Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-Washington, said in an interview Tuesday with CNN.

"The incidents in Alexis' past 'should have been a red flag that maybe we need to delve a little deeper into this individual,' said retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold.

"The Navy had sought to give him a 'general discharge' due to at least eight incidents of misconduct while on duty, but ultimately had to give him an honorable discharge due to lack of evidence to support the sterner measure, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday.

"But he went on to work for a group called The Experts, which was subcontracting with Hewlett Packard on a large military contract.

"With security clearance, he worked from September 2012 through January in Japan. His clearance was renewed in July, and he worked at facilities in Rhode Island, North Carolina and Virginia for weeks at a time upgrading computer systems, according to Thomas E. Hoshko, CEO of The Experts...."

---

"DC gunman was suffering host of mental issues prior to shooting, report says"
FoxNews.com (September 17, 2013)

"Navy veteran Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people at a Navy building in Washington Monday morning, had been suffering a host of serious mental issues, including paranoia and a sleep disorder, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press.

"Alexis had been hearing voices in his head and had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental problems, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation in the case was continuing.

"Alexis, 34, was discharged from the Navy two years ago after serving hitches in Texas and Illinois....

"...He most likely gained entry into the facility with a CAC card, or a common access card. The system does not require workers to pass through a metal detector and usually only requires employees to show the card. Senior military officials tell Fox News that he most likely shot his way into building 197, because that building requires a separate pass he did not have.

"Washington Mayor Vincent Gray said there was still no motive for the shootings and no indication of terrorism 'although we haven't ruled that out.'

"While some neighbors and acquaintances described him as 'nice,' his father once told detectives in Seattle that his son had anger management problems related to post-traumatic stress brought on by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also complained about the Navy and being a victim of discrimination...."

---

"Navy Yard: Aaron Alexis 'treated for mental health' "
BBC News (September 17, 2013)

"The ex-US Navy reservist who killed 12 people and wounded eight at a Washington DC Navy installation had received treatment for mental health issues, US media have reported.

"Aaron Alexis, 34, was treated for paranoia, trouble sleeping and hearing voices, the Associated Press reported.

"A contractor for the Navy, he had a valid pass for the secure site at the Washington Navy Yard, authorities said.

"Alexis was shot and killed by police during the attack...."

---

"Authorities question vetting of Washington gunman who killed 12"
Mark Hosenball and Ian Simpson, Reuters (September 17, 2013)

"Washington authorities questioned on Tuesday how a U.S. military veteran with a history of violence and mental problems could have gotten clearance to enter a Navy base where he killed 12 people before police shot him dead.

"The suspect, Aaron Alexis, 34, a Navy contractor from Fort Worth, Texas, entered Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning and opened fire, spreading panic at the base just a mile and a half from the U.S. Capitol and three miles from the White House.

"Investigators are still trying to determine the shooter's motive. Alexis had been given clearance to enter the base on the Anacostia River, despite two gun-related brushes with the law and a discharge from the Navy Reserve in 2011 after a series of misconduct issues.

"A federal law enforcement source told Reuters Alexis had a history of mental problems but gave no details. CNN reported that Alexis had contacted two Veterans Administration hospitals recently and was believed to be seeking psychological help.

" 'It really is hard to believe that someone with a record as checkered as this man could conceivably get, you know, clearance to get ... credentials to be able to get on the base,' Washington Mayor Vincent Gray told CNN.

"He said automatic U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration could have led to skimping on vetting that would have barred Alexis from the heavily guarded base...."

---

Hack Attack: Good News, Bad news, Security, and Freedom

First, the good news. This could have been a lot worse:

"Sophisticated cyber-attack hits Energy Department, China possible suspect"
FoxNews.com (February 4, 2013)

"The Energy Department has been hit by a major cyber-attack, which resulted in the personal information of several hundred employees being compromised and could have been aimed at obtaining other sensitive information, The Washington Free Beacon reports.

"FBI agents are investigating the attacks, which happened two weeks ago, at the Washington-based headquarters. Fourteen computer servers and 20 workstations reportedly were penetrated during the attack....

It looks like the Energy Department's hack attack is about as serious matter as what happened to Sony Playstation back in 2011. (Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 26, 2011) Individuals were affected, and the organization had a public relations headache: but that's as far as the trouble went.

Apparently hackers got information about Energy Department employees. That could be serious for the individuals involved, if folks who steal identities for fun and profit get it. Identity theft is a real problem, and a bit off-topic for this blog.

Politics, Editorial Views, and Motive

I'm not familiar with the Washington Free Beacon, but understand that it's editorial stance is "conservative." That might explain why the service was interested in posting this article: but doesn't mean that the hack attack didn't happen.

Another Employer's Personnel Files Hacked: So What?

The Energy Department handles information that's a tad more important than usernames and passwords for online games. They're interested in solar energy, wind farms, nuclear weapons, and other energy-related tech. (More at energy.gov)

I don't share the reflexive revulsion toward nuclear weapons, and unquestioning enthusiasm over solar power, expressed by some of my contemporaries. On the other hand, on the whole I'd rather have some technical details of America's nuclear weapons stay where it's supposed to be.

Back to that article:

"...While no classified information was compromised, the Free Beacon reports there are indications the hackers could have been seeking access to such data. Chinese hackers may be suspects, as the department is a known target of Beijing -- according to the Free Beacon, the sophistication of the attack indicates the involvement of a foreign government.

"The department includes the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains nuclear weapons.

" 'It's a continuing story of negligence,' former Energy Department security official Ed McCallum told the Free Beacon, explaining that the department continues to have security problems despite controlling some of the most 'sophisticated military and intelligence technology the country owns.'..."
(FoxNews.com)

Mr. McCallum might simply be an irate ex-employee, out to make trouble for his former boss, he may be an irate ex-employee who's legitimately concerned about a clueless former boss, or maybe there's another explanation for what he said.

Old-School Skills, Information Age Issues

I think it's quite possible that whoever's making decisions at the Energy Department is well-meaning Washington bureaucrat: who is very good at managing paperwork; diligent in pursuing greater intradepartmental communication; and clueless about the Internet. Folks in top leadership positions tend to be a bit on the old side, and less than familiar with information technology:

• "Why Your Boss Doesn't Understand the Information Age"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind (August 9, 2010)

Clueless management is funny - in the comics.



In the real world, having a boss who doesn't understand why keeping a network safe from hackers could be a big problem.

Being 'Protected'

I think it would be nice if everybody could share information about anything, and do so without being concerned about anyone's safety. I also think it would be nice if everybody would be nice: but that's not the way the world is.

Reality being what it is, there is a need for secrets: and weapons, and that's almost another topic. Folks who decided to kill several thousand people on September 11, 2001, were not nice. What's happened since strongly indicates that outfits like Al Qaeda and the Taliban are still determined to behave badly.

Sadly, they're not the only ones who threaten the safety of the rest of us.

China isn't the same country it was a half-century back: but its leadership still seems to be unwilling to accept folks whose ideas don't follow the 'party line.' China isn't alone, of course. It's easy to see disagreement as a threat.


I'm concerned about threats from outside America. I'm also concerned about Americans who want to 'protect' us from ideas they don't like. And that is another topic. (March 9, 2008)

Related posts:

• Internet security
  
  • " 'Chinese Hackers' - - - And Keep Reading"
    (March 1, 2012)
  • " 'Digital Sabre-Rattling,' "Complex Legal and Cultural Issues,'" and Heat-Related Deaths"
    (July 15, 2011)
  • "IMF Hacked, Again - or - 'This isn't Cyberwar: It Just Acts Like Cyberwar'?!"
    (June 11, 2011)
  • "China to Google: 'Shut Up Or We'll Hurt You' "
    (June 6, 2011)
  • "China, Paper on How to Bring Down USA Power Grid: All a Big Misunderstanding?"
    (March 20, 2010)
• Freedom
  • "Information Technology, People, and a Changing World"
    (February 23, 2011)
  • "Blogs, Freedom of Speech, and Threats to the Status Quo"
    (July 31, 2010)
  • "How to Shut Down the Internet - or - Dealing With Troublesome Ideas, and the People who Spread Them"
    (December 7, 2009)
  • "DC Gun Ban, Online Censorship, Individual Rights, and Power to the People"
    (June 27, 2008)
  • "Odd Allies: Opposition to Waterboarding and Web Censorship"
    (March 9, 2008)
    Particularly
    • Fear, Censorship, and Consequences

Grave Trouble: 64,000 Arlington Dead 'Dishonored' - 64,000!

Arlington National Cemetery is in the news again. It's basically the same record-keeping SNAFU that surfaced before, with more detail. Executives got fired in June of last year, when more than 200 graves were lost. I gather that they weren't literally gone from the cemetery: just that records for them were scrambled.

That's not acceptable.

On the other hand, I'm not all that surprised that something went wrong. I'd better explain that statement.

One and a Half Centuries, More Than a Quarter of a Million Burials

Arlington National Cemetery has been around for about 147 years. Or 148, counting from 1863: when the Union confiscated land owned by General Robert E. Lee. There's a brief history of the cemetery online. Quite a few, actually, including:

• "Arlington Cemetery History"
  VisitingDC.Com

A few things have changed since the War Between the States and Reconstruction. Take data storage and information technology, for example. Folks maintained Arlington's records, using pens (quill, fountain, and ballpoint), Typewriters, and Database software.

Laws, customs, and practices involving record keeping changed, too. And most of the folks who ran Arlington in previous decades aren't around to answer questions. I'm not making excuses here: just noting that any sort of inventory control is subject to human error.

Then there's the size of the place:¹

• 147 years in operation
• 259,978 gravesites
  • More than 300,000 burials
    • Some grave markers have two or more names

I've run into the "30 burials a day" fairly often in the news. That may be accurate, but at 300,000 burials over 147 years, I get an average of about five and a half burials a day over the cemetery's history.

Honoring the Dead, Getting a Grip

Like I said, botching the records of 64,000 folks buried in a cemetery is "not acceptable." I wouldn't like it if it were just 64 cases of sloppy record-keeping.

But that's what this seems to be about, sloppy record-keeping: not having burials that involved tossing the body in a potting shed. Compared to some private-sector cemetery horror stories that hit the news, the Arlington affair is comparatively mild.²

Even the 'unmarked graves' are more a matter of folks in the early 20th century not knowing what late 20th century customs would be:

"...One of the biggest surprises uncovered by the review was that in most of the early 20th century, the cemetery did not include the name of a wife on a headstone when she was buried next to her husband. Under current practices, the name of the spouse is etched onto the back of the headstone.

" [Arlington executive director Kathryn] Condon said the cemetery will correct that by adding the spouse's name to the gravesite. She said it is not only the right thing to do but is also required by law.

"Accounting for the forgotten spouses alone will require thousands of corrections, officials said. In some cases, replacement headstones will be made. In cases where the headstones are considered historic, footstones will be added...."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)

But still - 64,000 is a big number. And I could, by cherry-picking factoids from the news, post something like 'oh, the horror! the horror! SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND BLANK HEADSTONES!!!'

If I shoveled in enough unsupported opinions about the vile wickedness of the American military, I might even be considered 'intelligent' in the 'right' circles.

That's not gonna happen.

It's not that I think U. S. Army brass are supernal beings who routinely take a morning stroll on the Tidal Basin. Stuff happens. Sometimes it's losing track of cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. In this case, it's a botched job of record keeping at a cemetery.

Mistakes happen - and sometimes the 'mistakes' were intentional. Either way, I think it's important to clean up the mess; deal sensibly with whoever was responsible; and take steps to keep the problem from happening again. As far as I can tell, the American military has a pretty good track record for learning from mistakes.

Goodbye Quill Pens, Hello Information Age

I think that, sooner or later, the American Congress will get around to putting the legislative process in an online, searchable, accessible, form. And that's another topic. Meanwhile, it looks like the folks running Arlington have acknowledged the Information Age:"...The most significant part of the review, Condon said, is that the cemetery for the first time has a single, reliable database that will allow officials to fix past mistakes and plan for the future.

"The cemetery is currently testing an interactive, web-based version of its database that will allow visitors to click on a digital map to see gravesites and learn who is buried there, ensuring the cemetery's records are open and accessible going forward.

" 'We'll have 300 million American fact-checkers,' [Gravesite Accountability Task Force co-chair John] Schrader said."

More-or-less-related posts:

• Good news, bad news - - -
  • "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
    (May 31, 2011)
  • "Pentagon Equates (Violent) Protest to Terrorism: Leaves Out Critical Explanation"
    (June 18, 2009)
  • "U.S. Army Chief of Staff Memorial Day Message - Video"
    (May 25, 2009)
  • "Army Report: Big Mistakes in Iraq!"
    (June 30, 2008)
  • "Arrogance, Stupidity, Iraq, and the State Department"
    (October 27, 2007)
• - - - and "Kleenex-boxes-for-shoes, the-squirrels-are-spying-on-me, kung-fu-fighting-invisible-ninjas crazy"³
  • "All Those 'Poor, Uneducated, Minorities Being Drafted in America!' "
    (January 4, 2009)
  • " '911 Was an Inside Job! Our Boys Need to Know!' "
    (June 10, 2008)
  • " 'The Army is Unraveling' - Just Like Vietnam!"
    (March 19, 2008)
  • "NBC Spikes Ads Thanking Troops: URL at End too 'Controversial' "
    (December 7, 2007)
  • "You Have Got to be Kidding: Boy Scout Care Packages to US Troops Banned in Cambridge"
    (November 16, 2007)

In the news:

• "Up to 64,000 Graves at Arlington Misidentified or Misplaced, Army Report Finds"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (December 22, 2011)
• "Arlington National Cemetery's top supervisors ousted in mismanagement case"
  Julian E. Barnes, Tribune Washington Bureau, Los Angeles Times (June 11, 2010)
• "Army inquiry finds 211 graves mishandled at Arlington Cemetery"
  Mike Mount, Senior Pentagon Producer, CNN (June 11, 2010)
• "Missing Bodies Plague Arlington National Cemetery, Probe Finds"
  David Martin, CBS News (June 10, 2010)

---

¹ From a description of how the Arlington Cemetery burial records issue is being handled:

"...The process began with a hand count, using simple mechanical clickers, of every gravesite -- 259,978 to be exact. (More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington, but some grave markers have two or more names.) Then, during the summer, members of the Army's ceremonial Old Guard unit used iPhones to photograph the front and back of every headstone, so the information could be compared against internal records....

"...John Schrader, co-chair of the Gravesite Accountability Task Force, said recordkeeping methods varied widely over the cemetery's 147-year history, from handwritten logs to index cards, to typewritten forms and two different computer databases. That sometimes compounded problems, as transcription errors were common. To avoid those problems, all of the old records have been scanned and digitized, rather than transcribed, to avoid introducing further errors, he said...."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)

² Deeds, dastardly and dumb, involving cemeteries:

• "Emmett Till's coffin found rotting in cemetery garbage shed"
  The Daily Voice (July 11, 2009)
  • Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time
    • Dig up bodies
    • Re-sell the burial plots
  Then someone finds out - - -
• "Body Count Grows at Georgia Crematory"
  FOXNews (February 19, 2002)
  • 'The incinerator was broken'
    • For 15 years?!
• "Family Enraged at Cemetery That Stored Body in Shed"
  Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times (October 09, 1991)
  • One outsize coffin
  • One standard size grave
  • One (stubborn?) funeral home
  • One furious family

³ Crazy people don't always write like crazy people. I posted a micro-review of some tongue-in-cheek advice in another blog:

• "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (June 12, 2011)

Infected Killer Robots! Unstoppable Virus!! MILITARY DENIAL!!!!!!!!!? No, not exactly

I've already done two posts today,¹ so this one will be (fairly) terse.

Very briefly, a computer virus has gotten into the network that controls Predator and Reaper drones. It's a persistent little keylogger: but may not be a serious threat.

Those are the facts, as reported by two relatively calm journalists.²

It wouldn't take much to take those facts, and produce tabloid-style headlines. I haven't run into these, by the way:

INFECTED KILLER ROBOTS!!

That heading is accurate, but misleading.

America's Predator and Reaper drones not "robots" in the sense of being fully autonomous; but they are 'robotic' in the colloquial sense of the word. Their pilots are human, but operate the aircraft by remote control. These aircraft sometimes carry weapons, and so - in a way - they're "killer robots."

They're also infected with a keylogger virus: the sort of malware that records commands given by the pilots.

This is not a good thing. No classified data seems to have been copied, and pilots have control of the drones. On the other hand, bad code got into military networks - again - and the next infection might be more than just a nuisance.

UNSTOPPABLE VIRUS!!!!

Anyone whose knowledge of information technology comes mostly from playing video games and watching movies like Colossus: the Forbin Project or the Terminator movies³ might get the impression that computers are dangerous superintelligences, bent on world conquest and the destruction of humanity. Those of us who actually use information technology should have a better understanding of its potential: and limitations.

Predator and Reaper drones got infected. Or, rather, the network they're part of got infected. Removing the keylogger seems to be easy. But they get infected again as soon as they're reconnected to the network.

This is not good news, but it could be worse. I think this annoying bit of malware gives the folks running America's military data networks valuable experience. Eventually they may figure out how to keep the networks secure - and that all of a network has to be secure. Not just the 'important' parts.

MILITARY DENIAL!!!!!!!!

A none-too-serious television drama involved Area 51, with an imaginative twist. In the story, there really were alien spaceships and extraterrestrials in Area 51: and stories about alien spaceships and extraterrestrials in Area 51 were a cover story. Accounts of UFOS and all that were so wildly over-the-top, that nobody would take the idea seriously. Even if some of the 'real' facts were discovered.

That's fiction.

Sadly, there seem to be a fair number of folks who really believe that the American military is run entirely by intellectually-challenged, paranoid, control freaks: who have for decades brilliantly concealed The Truth from us, while stoutly refusing to believe that they've got any problems.

I think America's military is run by human beings, and I've been over that before.⁴

Out here in the real world, the 'military denial' seems to consist of

• Not shrieking down the hall in a mad panic
• Using existing procedures to remove infections as they appear
• Monitoring the system
• Studying the issue

Information Technology: Good News; Bad News

My checkered job history let me keep up with developments in information technology. I don't mind being able to store, review, search, analyze, and transmit data with a speed and accuracy you just don't get with manual typewriters. Or quill pens, for that matter.

I think today's online communities are, for the most part, a good thing. Folks can get together and learn about each other - even if they live on different continents. Yes, there's a downside: but we're talking about human beings here. 'Trouble' comes with the package.

The Predator and Reaper drone infection happened when data was transferred via external hard drives. That shouldn't have happened, but I think that sort of problem highlights one of America's remarkable strengths.

We don't lead the world in the development of drop-dead-cute robots: but we've got an information technology industry that often lets our military use off-the-shelf hardware and software. That, and an increasingly tech-savvy population, lets the American armed forces concentrate their research and development efforts on something besides basic computer design.

Wouldn't it be nice, though, if we didn't need soldiers, and if everybody would decide to be nice. And that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "'Digital Sabre-Rattling,' 'Complex Legal and Cultural Issues,' and Heat-Related Deaths"
  (July 15, 2011
• "Gmail, China, Knee-Jerk Response, and the Information Age"
  (June 4, 2011)
• "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
  (May 31, 2011)
• "Lockheed Martin, Oak Ridge, Spear Phishing, and Common Sense"
  (May 29, 2011)
• "Information Technology, People, and a Changing World"
  (February 23, 2011)

In the news:

• "U.S. Military Drones Infected With Mysterious Computer Virus"
  Perry Chiaramonte, FoxNews.com (October 7, 2011)
• "Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet"
  Noah Shachtmanm, Danger Room, Wired (October 7, 2011)

---

¹ Today's previous posts:

• "Pakistan, Threats, Diplomacy, and All That"
  (October 8, 2011)
• "Still Blogging About Anachronisms, Autocrats, and America"(October 8, 2011)

² Excerpts from the news:

"..."[The drones] are controlled by standard PCs," Ghosh told FoxNews.com. "None of this should be surprising." The system should be replaced or "re-imaged" with a virus-free, bit-for-bit copy of the data on the drive in order to get rid of the infection, he said.

" 'If they are connected to a larger network they will be infected again," he said.

"A senior Air Force source with knowledge of the drone program and familiar with the virus that was caught in recent weeks told FoxNews.com that Wired's story is 'blown out of proportion' and 'vastly overwritten.'

" 'The planes were never in any jeopardy of "going stupid",' the source said, and the virus 'is not affecting operations in any way ... it showed up on a Microsoft-based Windows system. We have a closed-loop system and heavily protected cockpits -- the planes were never in jeopardy.'

"The virus was introduced when the Air Force was transferring data maps between systems using external hard drives, he said. Very quickly the Air Force protective network tracked the virus...."
(Perry Chiaramonte, FoxNews.com (October 7, 2011)

---

"A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

"The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.

" 'We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,' says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. 'We think it's benign. But we just don't know.'

"Military network security specialists aren't sure whether the virus and its so-called 'keylogger' payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don't know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command....

"...The Air Force declined to comment directly on the virus. 'We generally do not discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats, or responses to our computer networks, since that helps people looking to exploit or attack our systems to refine their approach,' says Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for Air Combat Command, which oversees the drones and all other Air Force tactical aircraft. 'We invest a lot in protecting and monitoring our systems to counter threats and ensure security, which includes a comprehensive response to viruses, worms, and other malware we discover.'

"However, insiders say that senior officers at Creech are being briefed daily on the virus...."
(Noah Shachtmanm, Danger Room, Wired (October 8, 2011)

---

³ I've discussed technology, science, and the Hollywood treatment, in another blog:

• "HAL 9000, Skynet, and C3PO"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (January 26, 2010)
• "Science Fiction in the Movies: 'The Satan Bug' to 'The Matrix' "
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (January 26, 2010)
• "The Threat of Dangerous New Technologies: It's Not All That New"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 23, 2009)

⁴ The American military has sometimes blundered. But I've noticed that they also make a point of learning from mistakes. I've posted good news and bad news about America's armed forces:

• "Space Patrol? Defending Cyberspace? Looks Like"
  (February 1, 2010)
• "Getting Called an Islamophobe, Saving Lives"
  (November 10, 2009)
• "Pentagon Equates (Violent) Protest to Terrorism: Leaves Out Critical Explanation"
  (June 18, 2009)
• "Army Emergency Relief Guilty! Vet Advocates Angry! You Know What the American Military is Like!"
  (February 23, 2009)
• "Army Report: Big Mistakes in Iraq!"
  (June 30, 2008)
  Particularly
  • Big Iraq Mistakes Report Creates Big Dilemma

"Digital Sabre-Rattling," "Complex Legal and Cultural Issues," and Heat-Related Deaths

Part of the first paragraph in an op-ed makes my point pretty well:

"...The Pentagon revealed an unclassified version of its 'Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.' And despite a drumbeat of scare talk and digital sabre-rattling in Washington, the document takes a measured, reasonable approach - focusing on good network hygiene and data-sharing, rather than bombing hackers into submission...."
(Noah Shachtman, Danger Room, Wired (July 14, 2011)

I've put longer excerpts at the end of this post.¹

I've also archived a copy of that unclassified document ("DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (DSOC)" (Department of Defense (July 14, 2011)), along with the text of their news release.²

"Digital Sabre-Rattling?"

I'm not sure if what the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to say is part of that "drumbeat of scare talk and digital sabre-rattling in Washington" cited by Mr. Shachtman. General Cartwright's attitude certainly isn't a sort of nice, deferential, conciliatory posture toward folks who want to kill Americans.

"...'For the Department of Defense, our networks are really our lifeblood,' Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in an interview prior to Lynn's release of the new strategy....

"...'If it's OK to attack me and I'm not going to do anything other than improve my defenses every time you attack me, it's difficult' to stop that cycle, Cartwright said. 'There is no penalty for attacking (the U.S.) right now.' He added that a number of complex legal and cultural issues need to be sorted out before the Pentagon can devise a comprehensive offensive strategy.

"In response to an audience member's question after his speech, Lynn the White House could be expected to consider using military force in response to a cyberattack 'if there is massive damage, massive human losses, significant economic damage.'..."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com).³

Hack Attack: What's the Big Deal?

So far, major hack attacks on American targets have been - rather intellectual. Information has been stolen, folks have found it difficult to use a few online resources, and that's about it.

Even the personal data that's been stolen hasn't been all that serious. Sure, credit card numbers, email addresses, and financial records that were supposed to be personal, private, and not in the hands of whoever some anonymous hacker sold them to, went missing. But we're told that it's okay.

Since there apparently hasn't been a massive wave of identify theft, maybe those reassurances are true.

I certainly hope that's the case.

Sooner or later, though, someone's likely to try taking down the North American power grid. Some folks in China did a serious study of how that could be accomplished. Last year we were told that it's okay, though: the study was purely theoretical. Or maybe a big misunderstanding. Or something. That may be true. (March 20, 2010)

Major Blackout: What to Expect

Let's see what would happen if someone did decide to pull the plug on large parts of North America. Here's a sample of what we could expect:

"Stay safe during West Mich.'s heat wave"
Kyle Underwood, WOOD TV8 (July 15, 2011)

"...More Americans suffer heat-related deaths each year than from any other weather disaster. Many heat-caused fatalities are elderly folks who do not have access to air conditioning or a cooling center. Heat stroke and dehydration are also far more likely during heat waves...."

---

"Memphis man, 72, becomes third victim of summer heat"
Jody Callahan, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) (July 14, 2011)

"A 72-year-old man succumbed to the high temperatures Wednesday, becoming the third heat-related death so far this summer in the Memphis area, officials said today...."

---

"Heat blamed in five Alabama deaths since May"
Associated Press, via The Gadsden Times (July 14, 2011

"At least five deaths are being blamed on the hot weather in Alabama, and health officials said Thursday they fear the number could climb as temperatures soar...."

---

"Second heat-related death in St. Louis"
STLtoday.com (July 14, 2011)

"An 80-year-old woman whose air conditioner wasn't working properly became the city's second heat-related death this year, officials said Thursday...."

---

"With many hot days to come, suspected heat deaths hit nine"
Alan Bavley, The Kansas City Star (July 13, 2011 )

"With most of the summer still ahead, and a dangerously hot weekend in the forecast, the Kansas City area on Wednesday added another possible heat-related death, bringing the year's total to nine...."

---

"A Drumbeat of Scare Talk?"

I don't think that some nation, or terrorist group, will hack into the systems that maintain North America's electrical power supply: Almost certainly not today. Or even this weekend. Probably not this month. Or even this year.

Besides, six months from now, we wouldn't have to worry about not having power for air conditioners. Here in Minnesota, at least, it'd be power for heating systems that I'd be concerned about.

Maybe the power would come back on in a little less than 24 hours, like it did in the part of town where I live, after a storm went through recently. If that was the case, not many folks would die. Probably.

On the other hand, no power for days, weeks, maybe a month? During summer? Or winter? I'm pretty sure that quite a few folks would survive. Particularly those of us who are comparatively young, and healthy, and don't live in cities, and have access to basements. Or caves.

The rest of you? Well, maybe you'd survive. Or, maybe not.

Is recognizing that folks die when it gets too hot - or too cold - "a drumbeat of scare talk?" I'd say it depends on how the ideas are presented.

Me? I'm trying to point out that there really is a threat. And that some folks, like the lot that run Al Qaeda and the Taliban, don't seem to respond all that well to polite requests.

Related posts:

• "China and Google: 'Shut Up Or We'll Hurt You' "
  (June 6, 2011)
• "L-3 Communications, Grumman: Hack Attack"
  (June 1, 2011)
• "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
  (May 31, 2011)
• "China, Paper on How to Bring Down USA Power Grid: All a Big Misunderstanding?"
  (March 20, 2010)
• "Pentagon Computers Hacked - Joint Strike Fighter Project Data This Time"
  (April 21, 2009)

News and views:

• "Pentagon Makes Love, Not Cyber War, in New Strategy"
  Noah Shachtman, Danger Room, Wired (July 14, 2011)
• "Pentagon Discloses Largest-Ever Cyber Theft"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (July 14, 2011)

---

¹Excerpts from yesterday's news and views:

"Pentagon Makes Love, Not Cyber War, in New Strategy"
Noah Shachtman, Danger Room, Wired (July 14, 2011)

"For one day, at least, you can call off the cyberwar. The Pentagon revealed an unclassified version of its 'Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.' And despite a drumbeat of scare talk and digital sabre-rattling in Washington, the document takes a measured, reasonable approach - focusing on good network hygiene and data-sharing, rather than bombing hackers into submission.

"The question is whether this public summary conveys what's actually in the classified strategy, or reflects the real mood of the Department of Defense.

" 'DoD would like to be much more aggressive in what it says and how it acts,' says a source familiar with the development of the strategy. 'But that tendency to be aggressive has been reined in by the State Department, Treasury, and the White House, and not in an unreasonable way.'

"Listen to the talk inside the Washington Beltway - and especially within the Pentagon — and you'd think hackers were about to reach their hands through our computers, and strangle us all in our sleep....

---

"Pentagon Discloses Largest-Ever Cyber Theft"
Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (July 14, 2011)

"The Pentagon on Thursday revealed that in the spring it suffered one of its largest losses ever of sensitive data in a cyberattack by a foreign government. It's a dramatic example of why the military is pursuing a new strategy emphasizing deeper defenses of its computer networks, collaboration with private industry and new steps to stop "malicious insiders."

William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said in a speech outlining the strategy that 24,000 files containing Pentagon data were stolen from a defense industry computer network in a single intrusion in March. He offered no details about what was taken but in an interview before the speech he said the Pentagon believes the attacker was a foreign government. He didn't say which nation.

"We have a pretty good idea" who did it, Lynn said the interview. He would not elaborate.

Many cyberattacks in the past have been blamed on China or Russia. One of the Pentagon's fears is that eventually a terrorist group, with less at stake than a foreign government, will acquire the ability to not only penetrate U.S. computer networks to steal data but to attack them in ways that damage U.S. defenses or even cause deaths...."

²Department of Defense News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 608-11
July 14, 2011

"DOD Announces First Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace

"The Department of Defense released today the DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (DSOC). It is the first DoD unified strategy for cyberspace and officially encapsulates a new way forward for DoD's military, intelligence and business operations.

"'It is critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the cyber threats we're facing,' said Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta. 'I view this as an area in which we're going to confront increasing threats in the future and think we have to be better prepared to deal with the growing cyber challenges that will face the nation.'

"Reliable access to cyberspace is critical to U.S. national security, public safety and economic well-being. Cyber threats continue to grow in scope and severity on a daily basis. More than 60,000 new malicious software programs or variations are identified every day threatening our security, our economy and our citizens.

"“The cyber threats we face are urgent, sometimes uncertain and potentially devastating as adversaries constantly search for vulnerabilities,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III. 'Our infrastructure, logistics network and business systems are heavily computerized. With 15,000 networks and more than seven million computing devices, DoD continues to be a target in cyberspace for malicious activity.'

"The DoD and other governmental agencies have taken steps to anticipate, mitigate and deter these threats. Last year, DoD established U.S. Cyber Command to direct the day-to-day activities that operate and defend DoD information networks. DoD also deepened and strengthened coordination with the Department of Homeland Security to secure critical networks as evidenced by the recent DoD-DHS Memorandum of Agreement.

" 'Strong partnerships with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the private sector and foreign nations are crucial,' said Lynn. 'Our success in cyberspace depends on a robust public/private partnership. The defense of the military will matter little unless our civilian critical infrastructure is also able to withstand attacks.' "

³Longer excerpt:

"...'For the Department of Defense, our networks are really our lifeblood,' Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in an interview prior to Lynn's release of the new strategy....

"...Lynn said intrusions in the last few years have compromised some of the Pentagon's most sensitive systems, including surveillance technologies and satellite communications systems. Penetrations of defense industry networks have targeted a wide swath of military hardware, including missile tracking systems and drone aircraft, he said.

"In Cartwright's view, a largely defensive approach to the problem is inadequate. He said the Pentagon currently is focused 90 percent on defensive measures and 10 percent on offense; the balance should be the reverse, he said. For the federal government as a whole, a 50-50 split would be about right, Cartwright argued.

" 'If it's OK to attack me and I'm not going to do anything other than improve my defenses every time you attack me, it's difficult' to stop that cycle, Cartwright said. 'There is no penalty for attacking (the U.S.) right now.' He added that a number of complex legal and cultural issues need to be sorted out before the Pentagon can devise a comprehensive offensive strategy.

"In response to an audience member's question after his speech, Lynn the White House could be expected to consider using military force in response to a cyberattack 'if there is massive damage, massive human losses, significant economic damage.'..."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)

IMF Hacked, Again - or - 'This isn't Cyberwar: It Just Acts Like Cyberwar'?!

I really hope that the key people who may have clicked the wrong link, or opened the wrong attachment, are a trifle less clueless than Dilbert's manager:



Still, there have been a lot of hack attacks so far this year.

Big ones:

• Sony
• Lockheed Martin
• Oak Ridge
• L-3 Communications
• Grumman
  (see June 1, 2011)

Now we hear that the IMF's network has been compromised.

Again.

I hope I don't seem overly-concerned: but it's hard for me to shake the impression that all is not well with corporate and government information networks. Sure: Hacking Sony's Playstation database isn't quite like the International Monitory Fund network leaking. I include Sony's cyber-security woes in that list, because ideally a company as savvy as Sony shouldn't have let that happen.

Something, I think, has gone wrong with too many major commercial and government networks this year.

So, do I think it's time to run in circles and scream like a demented cat? No: That does not appear to be a reasonable approach.

On the other hand, I very sincerely hope that the White House cyber security coordinator has some response in mind. Besides calling cyber war a "turbo metaphor:" one that doesn't quite fit the sort of espionage we've been seeing. I think he's got a point, by the way, about staying calm:

• "Emotions, the Frontal Cortex, The War on Terror, Anarchists, and the Illuminati"
  (December 23, 2008)

Here's what got me started with this post:

"IMF hit by 'very major' cyber security attack"
US & Canada, BBC News (June 11, 2011)

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack.

"Officials at the fund gave few details but said the attack earlier this year had been 'a very major breach' of its systems, the New York Times reports.

"Cyber security officials said the hack was designed to install software to create a 'digital insider presence'.

"The IMF, which holds sensitive economic data about many countries, said its operations were fully functional.

"The cyber attack took place over several months, and happened before former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested over sexual assault charges...."

"...A cyber security expert told Reuters the infiltration had been a targeted attack, which installed software designed to give a nation state a 'digital insider presence' at the IMF.

" 'The code was developed and released for this purpose,' said Tom Kellerman, who has worked for the Fund...."

'Epidemic' Sounds Dramatic

I think there are a whole lot of hack attacks happening - major ones - this year. I also am a little cautious when someone uses emotive terms like "epidemic."

Still, these anonymous "experts" may be right.

"Targeted cyber attacks an 'epidemic'"
Maggie Shiels, Technology, BBC News (June 2, 2011)

"The targeted attack used by hackers to compromise e-mail accounts of top US officials is reaching 'epidemic' proportions, say security experts.

"The scam, known as spear phishing, was used in a bid to get passwords of Gmail accounts so they could be monitored.

"Via a small number of customised messages it tries to trick people into visiting a web page that looks genuine so users type in login names.

"Such attacks are often aimed at top officials or chief executives.

"Such attacks are not new, say security professionals, but they are becoming more commonplace.

" 'What is happening more and more is the targeting of a couple of high value individuals with the one goal of acquiring valuable information and valuable data,' said Dan Kaminsky, chief scientist at security firm DKH...."

'This isn't War - It Just Acts Like War?!'

Or, famous last words?

"Cyber war threat exaggerated claims security expert"
Maggie Shiels, Technology, BBC News (February 16, 2011)

"The threat of cyber warfare is greatly exaggerated, according to a leading security expert.

"Bruce Schneier claims that emotive rhetoric around the term does not match the reality.

"He warned that using sensational phrases such as 'cyber armageddon' only inflames the situation.

"Mr Schneier, who is chief security officer for BT, is due to address the RSA security conference in San Francisco this week

"Speaking ahead of the event, he told BBC News that there was a power struggle going on, involving a 'battle of metaphors'.

"He suggested that the notion of a cyber war was based on several high-profile incidents from recent years.

"They include blackouts in Brazil in 1998, attacks by China on Google in 2009 and the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran's nuclear facilities.

"He also pointed to the fallout from Wikileaks and the hacking of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail.

" 'What we are seeing is not cyber war but an increasing use of war-like tactics and that is what is confusing us...'..."

"...His point of view was backed by Howard Schmidt, cyber security co-ordinator for the White House.

" 'We really need to define this word because words do matter,' said Mr Schmidt.

" 'Cyber war is a turbo metaphor that does not address the issues we are looking at like cyber espionage, cyber crime, identity theft, credit card fraud...."

Okay: no turbo metaphors.

The IMF has been hacked. Again.

American defense contractors have been hacked. Several Times. This year. And the year isn't half-over yet.

Still, it could be worse.

Hey, the North American power grid is still working: right?

So, hey: how bad can it get? (June 1, 2011)

Like I said: Famous last words?

Related posts:

• "Gmail, China, Knee-Jerk Response, and the Information Age"
  (June 4, 2011)
• "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
  (May 31, 2011)
• "China, Paper on How to Bring Down USA Power Grid: All a Big Misunderstanding?"
  (March 20, 2010)
• "International Monetary Fund Allegedly Hacked - And It's Not News"
  (November 14, 2008)
• "Lehman Collapsed, the World Bank's Been Hacked, General Motor's not Bankrupt - Maybe: What a Mess!"
  (October 12, 2008)

In the news:

• "IMF hit by 'very major' cyber security attack"
  US & Canada, BBC News (June 11, 2011)

Gmail, China, Knee-Jerk Response, and the Information Age

I ran into a news item last night. The focus was on U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, his Chinese counterpart General Liang Guanglie, and what Gates said about China-United States relations. The two men were at an Asia-Pacific annual security conference ("talkfest" is how the article put it): called the Shangri-La Dialogue, of all things.

The latest hack attack coming from servers in China came up, briefly.

Hackers and Imperialist Capitalist Aggressor Warmonger Running Dogs

Times change. I haven't heard diplomatic boilerplate like "capitalist aggressor" for quite a while. Being away from college probably helps, but I think many folks have realized that it's not the 19th century any more, and class struggle just isn't what it used to be. And that's another topic.

Some things haven't changed so much, though.

First, about the latest hack attack:

"There is a lot of talk--and diplomatic tension--this week related to reports that attacks originating from China have breached Google Gmail accounts, including those of senior US government officials. The focus is on e-mail, and whether or not e-mail accounts were hacked, but a breached Gmail account is a much bigger prize than just the e-mail account it is attached to.

"Google claims that the spear phishing attacks that targeted Gmail accounts of White House staff, and successfully exposed accounts of senior US government officials, high-ranking military personnel, and political activists, originated from China. China denies any state-sponsored involvement in the attacks, and the FBI is investigating...."
(PCWorld Business Center)¹

I think it's possible that Google and China's leaders are right. I think it's very likely that Google traced the hack attack to servers in China: although I'll admit that Google could, in principle, be faking the attack's source. I don't think that's likely, but is is possible.

As for China's response to news that their servers hosted a hack attack? Again?

According to China's military, it is the work of Yankee imperialists. That's not quite the way they put it, but that's the basic idea:

"...A new irritant was introduced this week, with allegations that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists.

"The Chinese military tried to direct the spotlight off those allegations Friday, with accusations that the U.S. is launching a global 'Internet war' to bring down Arab and other governments.

"The FBI said it was investigating Google's allegations, but no official government email accounts have been compromised. Google said all the hacking victims have been notified and their accounts have been secured.....
(Associated Press, via Foxnews.com²) [emphasis mine]

Again, China's line seems to be that "the U.S. is launching a global 'Internet war' to bring down Arab and other governments."

That's probably good enough for folks who believe that the CIA blew up New York City's World Trade Center. After all these decades, though, it sounds like the same tired old 'American aggressor warmonger' stuff that cluttered the news in my youth.

A Country's Servers aren't a Country's Government

Since China is one of the world's more tightly-managed countries, in my opinion, I find it a little hard to believe that hackers have just happened to use Chinese servers for hack attacks - for years - and that the country's leadership doesn't know it's happening and can't stop it anyway.

Still, it's possible.

Particularly since I can easily imagine that it's in China's interests to get access to networks in other countries, for either espionage or sabotage, and blame Yankee imperialism.

China's response may simply be knee-jerk xenophobia: the sort of thing that had right-wing loonies blaming whatever they didn't like on the commies, back in 'the good old days.' I remember the real "Happy Days," by the way - and don't, ever, want to go back.

Or, the folks running China may not be the ones who planned and executed all those hack attacks. China's leaders may be aware that the attacks come from servers in their country - and not be able to stop whoever's behind the hacking. If that's the case, they may simply be embarrassed: and desperately want the problem to belong to someone else.

I think it's a good idea to remember that a national government doesn't necessarily control everything that happens within its borders: no matter how much the leaders want to.

Real Threat, Proportional Response

It's entirely possible that no one person or organization is behind attacks on the World Bank, Gmail, Sony, and all the rest. I think it's quite possible that there is no one motive behind the hacking.

My understanding is that there's a hot - if unethical and illegal - market for the sort of data that has quite possibly been stolen. That would make the hacks a new version of burglary. And, most likely, a private-sector effort.

Governments have their own motives.

What's happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere shows what can happen when old-school leaders lose control of their subjects. My guess is that Iran's rulers are developing a 'just us' intranet to keep the 'Arab spring' from spreading east. The Ayatollahs have nice-sounding motives: they want to 'protect' Iranians from foreign influences.

In my opinion, Iran's leadership isn't the only outfit that's scared of the Information Age. And for good reason. I've gone over that before:

• "Lemming Tracks: Iran, Internet, Freedom, and Getting a Grip"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (May 30, 2011)
  Particularly
  • 'Be Careful What You Wish For'
• " 'Search Neutrality:' Deciding What We're Allowed to Find?"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (January 22, 2011)
• "Steve Jobs, Censorship, and Who Gets to Choose"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (January 7, 2011)
• "A Catholic Blogger In the Digital Continent"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 15, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Embracing New Technology, Fearing the Internet

I think it's likely that some folks have idealistic reasons for hacking into corporate and government networks. Sometimes I even sympathize - a little - with the ideas they support. Like freedom of information. Which is emphatically not the same as thinking that what they're actually doing is right.

In a way, it's a sort of 'with friends like these, who needs enemies?' situation. A case in point:

"A hacker group has claimed responsibility for defacing the PBS.org website, the Fox.com site, and the Sony network, posting images of defaced websites and stolen databases and emails to its website....

"...Pike linked the hacker group Lulz to Anonymous, the 'hacktivist' collective that -- in the name of the freedom of information -- has hacked numerous websites, wrestled with security firms and made public a decrypted version of the cyberworm that crippled Iran's nuclear power program...."
(Jeremy A. Kaplan, FoxNews.com (June 2, 2011))

According to the article, Pike's considering turning himself in, before law enforcement shows up with a warrant. That's a good idea, in my opinion. Blaming Yankee imperialism may still work as an excuse in diplomacy: but American law enforcement is, in my experience, more interested in facts than finger-pointing.

As I said before, I think it's possible that a server in China could have been used for hack attacks, without the Chinese government being involved.

Determining how likely that is - and whether that's what's actually been happening - is a job I'm profoundly grateful belongs to someone else.

If it turns out that the Beijing bosses are responsible for the hack attacks, I suspect and hope that America's leaders will try to sort the mess out diplomatically. Not because I think the folks who are still occupying Tibet are a bunch of really nice guys who are just misunderstood. It's a matter of proportional response, and how many folks who weren't responsible could get hurt or killed in a military operation.

If the North American power grid goes down this winter? That's something else. (June 1, 2011)

China, Assumptions, and Living in the Information Age

I've been criticized for not having the proper attitude toward China: and not being politely silent.³ It's a familiar reaction. Commie-hunters acted that way in the McCarthy era (January 9, 2010); professors did the same, a few decades later; and I'm don't think trying to impose ideological purity is a good idea - no matter whose ideas are being shoved down my throat.

I also think it's a bad idea to assume that 'foreigners,' 'commies,' 'the military-industrial complex,' 'Big cheese,' or any other standard-issue bad guys are 'really behind' any particular issue. (January 14, 2009)

Finally, I think that these are trying times for old-school autocrats: and anybody who had a privileged position before information technology made it possible for folks to share ideas - without permission from their 'betters.'

I like the comparatively open marketplace of ideas we have today: but then, I don't mind people having access to dangerous technology. Like LP gas, guns, or computers. (June 27, 2008)

Related posts:

• Hack Attacks
  • "L-3 Communications, Grumman: Hack Attack"
    (June 1, 2011)
  • "Pentagon's New(ish) Policy About Hack Attacks"
    (May 31, 2011)
  • "Lockheed Martin, Oak Ridge, Spear Phishing, and Common Sense"
    (May 29, 2011)
  • "China, Paper on How to Bring Down USA Power Grid: All a Big Misunderstanding?"
    (March 20, 2010)
  • "World Bank Group Network Hacked; Chinese IPs Used: Just What We Need"
    (October 10, 2008)
• Passwords, security, and common sense
  • "Cloud Computing, Dropbox, and the Postcard Principle"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (May 13, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Bad News From Sony; and Getting a Grip"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (May 3, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Epsilon Breach, Spam, and Getting a Grip"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 6, 2011)
  • "Strong Passwords: It Can be Done"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (January 1, 2011)
  • "International Cyber Crime Ring Busted: 'By Jove, I Think They've GOT It!' "
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (October 3, 2010)
• China, Yankee imperialism, and getting a grip:
  • "Imperialist American Aggressors Attack Poland?"
    (October 30, 2009)
  • "China Shot 12: Don't Worry, They're 'Mobsters' "
    (July 19, 2009)
  • "A Reporter Escapes the Taliban, Monks Escape China"
    (June 20, 2009)
  • "Tiananmen Square 20th Anniversary: A Losing Battle for Traditional Information Gatekeepers"
    (June 3, 2009)
  • "U.S. Warship Kills Innocent Egyptian!! No Wonder Everybody Hates America!!!"
    (March 24, 2008)

News and views:

• "Gates Says Relations With China Improving, as Chinese Military Accuses U.S. of 'Internet War' "
  Associated Press via FoxNews.com (June 3, 2011)
• "More than E-mail at Stake in Google Gmail Attack"
  Tony Bradley, PCWorld Business Center (June 3, 2011)
• "Group Claims It Was 'Paid to Hack PBS,' Then Leaks a Million Sony User IDs"
  Jeremy A. Kaplan, FoxNews.com (June 2, 2011)

---

¹ Excerpt from news and views:

"Putting a positive spin on a sometimes stormy relationship, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that military ties with China are 'on a more positive trajectory' but need further strengthening....

"...The main elements of friction remain, however. China still claims control of waters the U.S. considers international. Chinese ambition for influence in Southeast Asia and elsewhere still makes smaller nations uneasy, while Beijing dislikes the heavy U.S. naval presence in Asian waters and builds up its military with weaponry only logically intended for use against the U.S.

"A new irritant was introduced this week, with allegations that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists.

"The Chinese military tried to direct the spotlight off those allegations Friday, with accusations that the U.S. is launching a global 'Internet war' to bring down Arab and other governments.

"The FBI said it was investigating Google's allegations, but no official government email accounts have been compromised. Google said all the hacking victims have been notified and their accounts have been secured.....

"...Gates and Liang met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security talkfest attended by defense officials from across the Asia-Pacific region. On Saturday Gates was delivering an address to the conference before continuing an around-the-world journey that is his final trip before retiring June 30...."
(Associated Press via FoxNews.com)

¹Excerpts from news and views:

"There is a lot of talk--and diplomatic tension--this week related to reports that attacks originating from China have breached Google Gmail accounts, including those of senior US government officials. The focus is on e-mail, and whether or not e-mail accounts were hacked, but a breached Gmail account is a much bigger prize than just the e-mail account it is attached to.

"Google claims that the spear phishing attacks that targeted Gmail accounts of White House staff, and successfully exposed accounts of senior US government officials, high-ranking military personnel, and political activists, originated from China. China denies any state-sponsored involvement in the attacks, and the FBI is investigating.

"The Gmail e-mail accounts are getting all of the attention. Catalin Cosoi, head of the BitDefender Online Threats Lab, notes in a blog post, 'Just as in the previous attack against the Gmail service, we can assume that cyber-criminals went after sensitive documents the users might have inadvertently forwarded from their business inboxes.'

"But, it would be more accurate to say that Google accounts are being targeted or compromised--not just Gmail. Depending on the extent the hacked account relies on Google, there is potentially much more at stake than just the documents that might be forwarded as a file attachments from Gmail. There is no differentiation between hacking a Gmail account, and hacking the rest of the diverse array of Google services....

"...If the victim actually uses Google Docs, the attacker will have access to all documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings stored online by the victim--not just the ones that might have been included as a file attachment in an e-mail.

"Accessing Google Maps could yield valuable information as well. Most users enter a home address as the default location to save time when searching for driving directions....

"...It is up to Google, and China, and the FBI to get to the bottom of whether the compromised accounts are a state-sponsored act of international espionage, or just the work of run-of-the-mill spear phishing cyber-criminals. But, regardless of who is behind the attack, or what the underlying motives are, there is more than just e-mail at stake."
(PCWorld Business Center)

² Excerpt from news and views:

"Putting a positive spin on a sometimes stormy relationship, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that military ties with China are 'on a more positive trajectory' but need further strengthening....

"...The main elements of friction remain, however. China still claims control of waters the U.S. considers international. Chinese ambition for influence in Southeast Asia and elsewhere still makes smaller nations uneasy, while Beijing dislikes the heavy U.S. naval presence in Asian waters and builds up its military with weaponry only logically intended for use against the U.S.

"A new irritant was introduced this week, with allegations that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists.

"The Chinese military tried to direct the spotlight off those allegations Friday, with accusations that the U.S. is launching a global 'Internet war' to bring down Arab and other governments.

"The FBI said it was investigating Google's allegations, but no official government email accounts have been compromised. Google said all the hacking victims have been notified and their accounts have been secured.....

"...Gates and Liang met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security talkfest attended by defense officials from across the Asia-Pacific region. On Saturday Gates was delivering an address to the conference before continuing an around-the-world journey that is his final trip before retiring June 30...."
(Associated Press via FoxNews.com)

³ Comments from "Tibet: Fifty Years of Chinese Liberation, and Counting" (March 10, 2009):

"Anonymous said...

"If you are outside of Tibet, just leave Tibet alone, let Tibetan live by themselves, please love your land where you live and shut up. If Dalai was right, a pig could fly.
"March 10, 2009 3:45 PM

"Brian, aka Nanoc, aka Norski said...

"Anonymous,

"If 'Tibetan live by themselves' I might. However, since Tibet was invaded about fifty years ago, and Chinese troops are now stationed to keep the Han shopkeepers safe and Tibetans in line, and quite a number of Tibetans don't like the situation: I will not 'shut up.'

"Kudos, though, at being comparatively civil about it. Particularly in comparison with what may have been another of the throng of Anonymouses out there, responding to 'Today's Main Event: Protesters vs. the Olympic Torch in San Francisco' (April 9, 2008).

"That Anonymous's comment, in full:

"Anonymous said...

"Don't pretend that you know a lot about history. Tibet is still a An English TRANSLATION name as same as Xizang. Now that you don't like China, you can call Xiazang any name you want.
"Suggest you goto a library to read a little more about Tibet then comment on this "Independence", though suggesting going to library is often a mother's duty.
"April 26, 2008 7:54 PM

"March 10, 2009 6:05 PM
"Politics and the Future said...

"China is not my focus in the war on terror only in my economic studies is it a bigger focus for me.

"But I do have to say one thing, with a growing nation could China become a new superpower? could they develop weapons of mass destruction? I know I know I sound like a conspiratist but I'm not. I am only asking.
"I believe they are going to gain more power both militarily and economically.

"March 10, 2009 6:59 PM

"Anonymous said...

"Please pay more attention to your own business. Never lavish your sympathy on Dalai. If you turn blind eyes to the truth and still whitewash a serf owner as your spiritual leader, I would say nothing any more. What do you think if you know those old noble owner picked serfs' eyes and striped their skin for punishment ? They asked serf to take their shit as medicine. How do you feel about it? These only happened several decades ago under Dalai's rule in Tibet. Where is your conscience. How could you depict it as a shangrila? Please look back to the documentary which your western media took before 1990's. If you think you are god and don't need to read, I go.

"March 10, 2009 8:04 PM

"Brian, aka Nanoc, aka Norski said...

"Anonymous #2, or maybe the same Anonymous,

I know that Tibet isn't Shangri-La (Lost Horizon is a pretty good movie, though - so is Star Wars). Live [!] isn't the movies.

"I do, though, seem to have hit a nerve.

"Apparently, one is not supposed to discuss, or mention, the liberation of Tibet - except in glowing terms.

"Anybody interested in the Chinese side of this issue could do a lot worse than reading that op-ed I linked to.

"This isn't just about the Dalai Lama, by the way: the new overlords of Tibet may not be that big an improvement over the monks they displaced.
"March 10, 2009 8:11 PM

"Brian, aka Nanoc, aka Norski said...

"Politics and the Future,

"I think I followed that comment.

"China's nuclear weapons program began, as far as can be determined, in the mid-1950s. At this time, they almost certainly have hundreds, but not thousands, of nuclear bombs in their stockpile. Chinese leaders have repeatedly pledged to not use nuclear weapons first in a confrontation. ("Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) - Nuclear Weapons" GlobalSecurity.org)

"I'm inclined to believe Chinese leaders on this point. After the debacle we call the Cultural Revolution, Chinese leadership has shown few to no suicidal tendencies.

"(North Korea with nukes is a whole different ball of wax.)

"Not that I have unwavering confidence in the good will of the Chinese government.

"For those looking for something to be concerned about, there's China's secret submarine base (no kidding): "Forget the Olympics For Now: China's Secret Submarine Base is Serious" (May 2, 2008)
"March 12, 2009 12:48 PM"
(Comments from "Tibet: Fifty Years of Chinese Liberation, and Counting" (March 10, 2009))