Cyber Attacks

[Sludge Factory]

I imagine we'd flip our shit if the same kind of thing was done to us. In fact, I bet it would be labeled terrorism. We are becoming that which we fear...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/repo ... 34261.html

..Report: Obama ordered wave of cyberattacks on Iran
By Ron Recinto | The Ticket – 1 hr 22 mins ago....Email
Share7Print......President Barack Obama ordered a secret wave of sophisticated computer attacks on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, according to the New York Times.

Obama decided to accelerate the program, begun under the Bush administration and code-named "Olympic Games," even after the some of the code of computer worm used in the cyberattacks was revealed on the Internet, the Times reported today.

"Olympic Games" was a joint venture between the U.S. and Israel designed to take down the Iranian nuclear program using the worm dubbed Stuxnet, the story indicated.

When an error accidentally allowed Stuxnet to "escape" Iran's Natanz plant, Obama and his team convened to discuss the situation as described in the story:

Should we shut this thing down?" Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president's national security team who were in the room.

Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.

Obama's decision in the early months of his presidency to push the attacks marked America's first sustained use of cyberweapons, and it resulted in physical damage to Iran's Natanz plant, according the piece.

The Times story was written by correspondent David Sanger and was adapted from his book, "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power." It was based off interviews with anonymous intelligence sources with access to the highly-classified program, The Atlantic Wire reports.

The Atlantic Wire story called the book excerpt "a fascinating story about how Stuxnet was developed and deployed, but also hints at larger questions about the use of cyberweapons and how they could come back to haunt the United States."

[Bronx Bombers]

Guess Obama won't be winning any Nobel Peace prizes this year lol

[inmytree]

I imagine we'd flip our shit if the same kind of thing was done to us. In fact, I bet it would be labeled terrorism. We are becoming that which we fear...

I'm pretty sure it is happening to us...

and How is this a bad thing...?

what's the alternative...?

[Sludge Factory]

I imagine we'd flip our shit if the same kind of thing was done to us. In fact, I bet it would be labeled terrorism. We are becoming that which we fear...

I'm pretty sure it is happening to us...

and How is this a bad thing...?

what's the alternative...?

How is it bad that we are becoming terrorists ourselves? Are you really asking this or did you just not understand what I was getting at?

[inmytree]

Guess Obama won't be winning any Nobel Peace prizes this year lol

yeah, launching cyber attacks vs. military action....

terrible...just terrible...

[inmytree]

I imagine we'd flip our shit if the same kind of thing was done to us. In fact, I bet it would be labeled terrorism. We are becoming that which we fear...

I'm pretty sure it is happening to us...

and How is this a bad thing...?

what's the alternative...?

How is it bad that we are becoming terrorists ourselves? Are you really asking this or did you just not understand what I was getting at?

I guess you defining this as terrorism is odd to me...

let's say this is "terrorism" (for the record, I don't see this as terrorism)...what to suggest be done...?

[Indifference]

From ZH:

Obama has repeatedly told his aides that there are risks to using - and particularly to overusing - the weapon. In fact, no country's infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran

[Cliffy6745]

How the hell can you complain about this? I'm at a loss.

[fuck]

Guess Obama won't be winning any Nobel Peace prizes this year lol

yeah, launching cyber attacks vs. military action....

terrible...just terrible...

I guess negotiations are out the window then? It's either this or military action. Nice hole we've dug ourselves into.

[Sludge Factory]

I guess you defining this as terrorism is odd to me...

let's say this is "terrorism" (for the record, I don't see this as terrorism)...what to suggest be done...?

You misunderstand me. "I'm" not defining it as terrorism. What I am saying is I can see how our government would define it as such if the roles in this instance were reversed. It seems everything not sanctioned by our government is terrorism these days in its eyes.

Going off that, it would be pretty clear to me that we are becoming the actual terrorists...what with all the unmanned drone attacks going on that have "collateral damage". You need to think more like a government official in order to equate a cybersecurity attack as terrorism. I believe our government absolutely would call it something like "cyber terrorism" because it was causing chaos in our energy infrastructure: "If our energy infrastructure is compromised by outside influences, why, that's just simply an attack on our country!"

It was just late last year that a person who was using privately minted silver as a store of wealth and a medium of exchange was labeled a "domestic terrorist" by our own government. How is that terrorism?

Essentially, my point is our government is full of hypocrites. When they do something like this it is for national security, but when another entity does it and we don't like it, it's "terrorism".

[Sludge Factory]

How the hell can you complain about this? I'm at a loss.

If you would look at it from the other perspective you could see why this is worthy of complaining about. How would you feel if you found out the Chinese government hacked into our nuclear enrichment facilities? Would you be okay with that? Would you feel even more comfortable with China?

[Jason P]

I wonder if this was responsible for the PJ20 ticket sale "F5" debacle ...

....

[Cliffy6745]

How the hell can you complain about this? I'm at a loss.

If you would look at it from the other perspective you could see why this is worthy of complaining about. How would you feel if you found out the Chinese government hacked into our nuclear enrichment facilities? Would you be okay with that? Would you feel even more comfortable with China?

I don't know. I don't really get how you can compare the two. We are talking about an anti-semeitic leader who no one knows what he is capable of. Much different situations. And I am sure China is already doing that, there was a thing on 60minutes a while back about it.

[Sludge Factory]

How the hell can you complain about this? I'm at a loss.

If you would look at it from the other perspective you could see why this is worthy of complaining about. How would you feel if you found out the Chinese government hacked into our nuclear enrichment facilities? Would you be okay with that? Would you feel even more comfortable with China?

I don't know. I don't really get how you can compare the two. We are talking about an anti-semeitic leader who no one knows what he is capable of. Much different situations. And I am sure China is already doing that, there was a thing on 60minutes a while back about it.

The ends do not justify the means. Regardless of ones opinion on the leader of Iran, it does America no good to engage in underhanded activities. Blowback is a bitch.