Now imagine each one of these quadrotors armed with a small explosive payload? Maybe even use their larger cousins that we saw being used in Libya. (imagine EFP’s mounted to the belly of a larger quadrotor?) Then use them ‘kamakazee style’ for a massive swarm attack or to support an ambush. In other words, it is research like this that is quickly making this stuff a reality. -Matt
Congratulations to Siemens Government Technologies and to General McChrystal. Boy, this last year we have seen a lot of outstanding leaders move on to the private sector and that is great news.
As for this deal, I am not sure what SGT will be focusing in on specifically. Perhaps a representative can come up and fill in a few of those blanks? I noticed on the website that they will be partnering with Boeing for DoD Energy Modernization and I am sure that includes a whole range of technologies to get us more efficient and self reliant. In the video, it talks about energy security and the costs to DoD, and those are very important to the operational capability of today’s military. -Matt
Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. Appoints General Stanley McChrystal to Chair Board of Directors
Dec. 19, 2011
Siemens Government Technologies, Inc., the newly developed Federal business arm of Siemens in the U.S., has appointed three external board members to strengthen business activities as Siemens builds its presence in the Federal market. General Stanley McChrystal, former Commander of the U.S. and International Security Assistances Forces Afghanistan, will serve as Chairman of the Board. He will be joined by former U.S. Army Lieutenant General John Sylvester and retired Lockheed Martin and General Electric executive Robert Coutts who will serve as board members.
“Our newly appointed board members bring a wealth of experience in identifying the challenges of the Federal marketplace and knowing how to meet these needs,” said Judy Marks, President and CEO of Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. “Siemens has the capabilities to provide solutions to reduce energy consumption, increase efficiencies, offer sophisticated medical services for our nation’s warfighters and achieve infrastructure improvements as a key strategic partner for the Federal government.”
In language discussing the bill, conferees say that because there is no historical precedent for what constitutes traditional military activities in cyberspace, “it is necessary to affirm that such operations may be conducted pursuant to the same policy, principles and legal regimes that pertain to kinetic capabilities.”
This is big news, and historical. The rules and laws of kinetic war now apply to Cyber War, and this brings up all sorts of ideas. For example, will we see more Cyber Lance type activities? Maybe a US special forces team combined with civilian hackers to locate and kill/capture enemy hackers or whomever? Who knows, and who knows how these new rules will apply?
Perhaps we will see the same issues that have popped up for today’s modern wars. Especially with the hybrid of private and public forces in conflict. I say this, because the US does not have the monopoly on ‘hacking force’. If they want the best, they can try to develop that capability internally, but inevitably they will have to reach out to private companies or individuals that are experts in these fields and pay them to do it.
Here is one quote below that really perked me up. Check it out:
Since the military cannot afford to pay enough to recruit qualified software and Internet engineers for this sort of work, it has turned to commercial firms. There are already some out there, companies that are technically network security operations, but will also carry out offensive missions (often of questionable legality, but that has always been an aspect of the corporate security business.)
Some of these firms have quietly withdrawn from the Internet security business, gone dark, and apparently turned their efforts to the more lucrative task of creating Cyber War weapons for the Pentagon. It may have been one of these firms that created, or helped create, the Stuxnet worm.
I read this and thought, why not just fire up the Letter of Marque and Reprisal and give these firms the legal authority and protections necessary to take part in offensive operations? The LoM is sitting right there in the War Powers clause in the US Constitution, and it just seems to me that we are missing the boat when it comes to doing this stuff. We could be legally authorizing the companies to steal funds and intellectual property from all sorts of enemies out there, and label these companies cyber privateers. (which if the military helped at all, would those commanders or the US be entitled to a cut? lol)
My other thought about all of this is when will we see a Cyber Weapon used in such a way as to actually kill like a real weapon? And with this public/private partnership we will have, we could potentially see IT Security companies build these weapons, and possibly even launch it. Just imagine if Stuxnet actually caused deaths in some weapons plant or nuclear facility? That would definitely put the ‘War’ in Cyber War. Very interesting….-Matt
America Legalizes Cyber War
December 18, 2011
The U.S. Congress approved a new law on December 14th that allows the Department of Defense to conduct offensive Cyber War operations in response to Cyber War attacks on the United States. That is, the U.S. military is now authorized to make war via the Internet. The new law stipulates that all the rules that apply to conventional war, also apply to Cyber War. This includes the international law of armed conflict (meant to prevent war crimes and horrid behavior in general) and the U.S. War Powers Resolution (which requires a U.S. president to get permission from Congress within 90 days of entering into a war).
The U.S. Department of Defense has long advocated going on the offensive against criminal gangs and foreign governments that seek (and often succeed) to penetrate U.S. government and military Internet security, and steal information, or sabotage operations. Over the past year, and without much fanfare, the Department of Defense has been making preparations to do just that.
Sofcoast is developing a revolutionary new product category called “Affordable Stationary Aerial Platforms” (ASAP). This product category is designed to be a coverage capability that represents a dramatic departure from the typical aerostat lifting systems on the market today and a product category that we believe can and will bring lightweight, affordable, rapid and mobile “on-demand” data, voice and imagery aerial coverage systems to the masses.
Now this is some interesting kit. This company called SOF Coast has created a miniature aerostat or helium filled mini-blimp equipped with a wireless camera. What is neat with this thing is that it is man portable, yet gives a small outpost the ability to have it’s own aerostat surveillance capability for night and day, and a repeater for radios. Something that large FOBs enjoy, but not so much for the smaller sites, combat outposts, and patrol bases.
The other thing that I thought that was cool, is that it is smart phone capable. Meaning you could watch the feeds through a smart phone like an iPhone. So that would give everyone of that camp, that has a link to that feed, the ability to see what the aerostat sees. My hope and concern is that this feed can be encrypted so that no one else can see what the aerostat sees. Here is a run down on what it can do:
-Portability – It is man-packable while wearing standard combat equipment.
-A high resolution image and full motion video surveillance camera for day/night operations.
-Communications repeater to increase dismounted patrol range and increase situational awareness.
Also, I guess the Army is looking at these things and will be playing around with them. That’s great and they might find some utility with such a tool. It will definitely add to the ‘Observe’ portion of their OODA. -Matt
A big thanks to Matt for sending me this one. So you are probably wondering why I am interested in this stuff? Pretty much because if someone can create a fire remotely, that falls under the category of cyber crime and/or cyber warfare.
But it can also fall under the category of cyber assassination, which is something I have written about in the past. The ability to remotely and physically attack someone else, all online and anonymously, is quite the thing. Stuff like this could be used to start fires in homes while people are sleeping, or starting fires in office buildings. The idea being, using fire as a weapon.
It also brings up another thought. With computers and smart phones, are there hacks that could cause those devices to catch fire? Or what about electric vehicles with wireless computer capabilities, that have large amounts of lithium batteries in them? Chevy’s Volt, a battery powered electric car, recently had some issues with catching on fire. If you could remotely turn an electric car into a fire ball, that too could be a weapon.
There is no word yet if an actual attack has ever occurred using this method, but it is something to keep an eye on. I am sure HP will come up with a counter to this hack, or try to refute what these guys did. Check it out. -Matt
Hackers Can Set Your HP Printer On Fire, Researchers Demonstrate
Nov 29, 2011
HP is investigating a claim that essentially any LaserJet the company made before 2009 — about 100 million have been sold since 1984 — could be remotely instructed to catch fire, according to a report on MSNBC.com.
Researchers at Columbia University, under a series of government and industry grants, have shown that the printers can be remotely controlled by hackers over the Internet, allowing them to not only steal information but even cause physical damage.
In one demonstration, Columbia professor Salvatore Stolfo and colleague Ang Cui showed how a hijacked system could be sent commands that would overheat the printer’s fuser, causing the paper to brown, smoke, and sometimes even catch fire.
Through its work on behalf of the German government and well-targeted application of its own resources, Rheinmetall has acquired tremendous expertise in this field in recent years. Rheinmetall expects a high-energy laser weapon system with an output of 100 kW to be available within the next three to five years.
This is impressive. Rheinmetall is producing some really awesome military grade laser systems that everyone should be taking notice of. Especially these APC mounted systems. But at what point does it transition from a mild APC with laser to a tank armed with a high-energy laser?
If they can increase the strength of these lasers to 100kW, and especially if Moore’s Law applies to this industry, then why not have a tank that fires a high powered laser? Something that is quiet and will slice an enemy’s tanks/jets in half, or zap a hole in the engine. Or a tank that can shoot miles away on a single human target, and basically vaporize that individual? I could see a lot of uses for a laser.
Which brings up my next point. Why are we not using these laser weapons against humans? Is it more humane to drop a bomb on a target and potentially kill innocent people surrounding that target, or is a laser not the better tool for selectively taking out targets in population centers? This kind of weapon would put the ‘surgical’ into a surgical strike, and in a pretty dramatic star wars kind of way. lol Imagine the look on the faces of a crowd that just watched a bad guy get quietly vaporized by some laser, shot from miles away…
The other cool thing with this system is that their goal is to shoot down UAV’s and mortars/rockets. According to this article and their recent demonstration, they did just that. That is cool and hopefully they will post a video of it. So that asks another question– will we see lasers replacing guns for CRAM duty? Possibly, and the future is now. -Matt
Rheinmetall: successful target engagement with high-energy laser weapons
22/11/2011
Full-scale demonstrator confirms Rheinmetall’s technological lead
Having recently used a high-energy laser weapon to down an unmanned aircraft at a proving ground in Switzerland, Rheinmetall has demonstrated the operational potential of combining a powerful laser weapon with an advanced air defence system. This event provides compelling proof of the Group’s 360° competence in relevant technologies ranging from military lasers and target recognition and identification to target tracking and fire control units – and its unrivalled ability to weld them into a single, forward-looking, fully functional full scale demonstrator. At a live fire laser demo at the Group’s Ochsenboden proving ground, international guests were able to view two laser weapon demonstrators in action, each featuring different performance parameters. For example, a 10-kW laser was integrated into an air defence system consisting of an Oerlikon Skyguard 3 fire control unit and a Skyshield gun turret. Modular and scalable, the laser weapon itself consisted of two 5-kW laser weapon modules. In addition, a 1-kW laser weapon module was displayed, specially mounted on a TM 170-type vehicle for the purpose.
Nov 25
These deals have turned the company into one of the quietest success stories in Silicon Valley—it’s on track to hit $250 million in sales this year—and a candidate for an initial public offering. Palantir has been used to find suspects in a case involving the murder of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent, and to uncover bombing networks in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. “It’s like plugging into the Matrix,” says a Special Forces member stationed in Afghanistan who requested anonymity out of security concerns. “The first time I saw it, I was like, ‘Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.’ ”
Thanks to Paul for enlightening me about Palantir. This is some very cool technology and I thought I would share this with the rest of the readership. This thing is also drawing a lot of interest from many sectors, and not just government.
What I like about it is it’s ability to process all of this data that is floating around out there. Or process data that groups have compiled, and help them to make sense of it all or find problems/deficiencies.
What I thought was interesting about the company itself, is it’s influences and how it innovates. The name Palantir comes from the movie Lord of the Rings, and the crystal ball used in the movie was called a Palantir. So this is a technology company with a ‘middle-earth’ theme. lol
But the other cool thing is how they find talent. Here is a quote:
Palantir has been doubling headcount every year to keep up with business. To get a job at the company, an applicant must pass a gauntlet of brain teasers. An example: You have 25 horses and can race them in heats of 5. You know the order the horses finished in, but not their times. How many heats are necessary to find the fastest? First and second? First, second, and third? (Answers: six, seven, and seven.) If candidates are able to prove themselves as what Karp calls “a software artist,” they’re hired. The company gives new arrivals some reading material, including a guide to improvisational acting, a lecture by the entrepreneur Steve Blank on Silicon Valley’s secret history with the military, and the book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. They’re also rewarded with a low wage by Silicon Valley standards: Palantir caps salaries at $127,000.
Improvisational acting? lol Now I am intrigued by that, and would be curious as to why this is a needed skill. Could it be that improvisational acting is a ‘building snowmobiles’ activity, where a person has to be creative on the fly? A test of a person’s OODA and their ability to react off of another person?
Well, definitely check this one out. I also think this would be a fantastic investment if it ever became an IPO. -Matt
Palantir, the War on Terror’s Secret Weapon
November 22, 2011
A Silicon Valley startup that collates threats has quietly become indispensable to the U.S. intelligence community
By Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone
In October, a foreign national named Mike Fikri purchased a one-way plane ticket from Cairo to Miami, where he rented a condo. Over the previous few weeks, he’d made a number of large withdrawals from a Russian bank account and placed repeated calls to a few people in Syria. More recently, he rented a truck, drove to Orlando, and visited Walt Disney World by himself. As numerous security videos indicate, he did not frolic at the happiest place on earth. He spent his day taking pictures of crowded plazas and gate areas.
This is very intriguing, because we just don’t know who is operating as Anonymous. It could be a legitimate group of do-gooders that want to attack the cartels, or it could be a competing cartel that wants to target the Zetas, and use the Anonymous handle to do this.
But as STRATFOR pointed out, the cartels have their own computer experts, and they will certainly hunt down any threats and make an example of them. They have already hunted down and killed reporters and bloggers, and this new threat from Anonymous will be dealt with in the same brutal and bloody way.
The other thing to remember is that the cartels have a ton of money to hire cyber lance teams. Or basically a team that can hunt people online, and kill or capture them with their armed component. I would not underestimate their ability to assemble such a team, and I am sure they already have such folks working as we speak. This will certainly be a true test of Anonymous’ OPSEC/PERSEC abilities.
This also brings up another concept that I have gone over in the past, and that is fifth generation warfare. A third possibility here, is that either an enemy of the Zetas or of Anonymous, or even of both, has put this whole thing together in order to create a ‘war’ between the two. That third party can constantly and anonymously feed both parties to make that war very bloody and costly, and that third party would benefit–and yet stay completely out of the mess. The question is, who is the third party? (Although I tend to agree with Lind that it is still too early to really define what fifth generation warfare is) But this theory would fit into some of the definitions that are floating around out there. Who knows?
Either way, we will see how this works out. I do know that with this kind of cyber warfare, there will be no limitations or niceties. Both sides will be trying to do massive harm, both online, and in reality. Although I would put my money on the Zetas for putting the lance in ‘cyber lance’. I hope Anonymous is ready to play, because this is when the game get’s very serious. -Matt
Edit: 11-08-2011, So Jester (a certain hacker that is well known for taking on Wikileaks and other folks in prime hacker fashion) has just posted a very interesting deal about this story. He just identified an individual named Barrett Brown who was behind all of this, and that the kidnapping was fabricated–all because he wanted to generate some buzz about Anonymous. The reason? To sell a book. lol Yep. Here is the quote from Jester:
Message to all. The truth of the matter is this, with Brown, it’s not about fighting Mexican injustice, it’s not about a ‘kidnapped’ Anon, it’s not even about him having a problem with the prices he has to pay to get high, it’s not about anything except him generating interest in his upcoming book.
Sep 30
Excellent news, and this is great to see a resource like this. With so much focus on the other problems of the world, these animals continue to rove the jungles of Africa and terrorize and kill. There must be a more coordinated and serious effort to kill or capture Joseph Kony and his LRA.
The other thing with this is that if you look at the concentration of incidents (heat map), you can get a basic idea where the LRA operational area is. This is where a drone or satellite should be pointed, and a task force could be on call, just waiting to pounce on these guys as soon as movement or activity gets seen or reported.
Or how about we take every village that has ever been attacked by these scum in these areas, and do a massive lion hunt type operation? If you can flush the LRA out of their hiding spots, and set up ambushes or blocking forces to kill them, then that might be a good use of the thousands of people who would love to see their destruction. There is strength in numbers, and something like this would empower the people.
The other thing I like about this service is that data like this will help those who want to defend against the LRA. If you can see the main group moving closer to a village, then that village could be warned and the children and women could be hidden. Every little tip and report, is a vital piece to this game. The design of the website and service also reminds me a lot of Ushahidi. Check it out. -Matt
LRA Crisis Tracker
The LRA Crisis Tracker is a real-time mapping platform and data collection system created to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the atrocities of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Using information sourced from Invisible Children’s Early Warning Radio Network, UN agencies, and local NGOs, this tool allows for better response from governments, policy-makers, and humanitarian organizations.
This joint project, developed by Invisible Children and Resolve, marks the first time data surrounding the crisis has been comprehensively aggregated and made publicly available.Website here.
LRA Crisis Tracker Introduction from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
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