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Iraq Attacks
Posted by Paul Szynol on Saturday, January 18 @ 18:18:11 EST News
At least that's the story being told by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, the NY Times reports.
Intelligence officials are concerned that a recent rise in electronic attacks against government and military computer networks in the United States may be the work of pro-Iraqi hackers and could signal a "potential crisis" in national security.
There have been no details disclosed, and "[t]here is some skepticism over whether Mr. Hussein's regime has the technical capability or the desire to initiate such attacks", which leads one to ask, reasonably, whether the report is accurate, or exaggerated anti-Iraq propaganda.

Given that the report apparently claims that the attacks are a danger to national security, though, I'm curious if the implication is that the cyberattacks merit real life retaliation. Wouldn't using cyberattacks as a justification for real life retaliation obligate the US, at least in principle, to declare war on all countries that are home to hackers who have attacked the US' information infrastructure?

 
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About Our Competence (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, January 19 @ 01:50:48 EST
If these attacks are really a threat, that says more about our lack of security than anything else. We could have secured military computing systems if we were willing to put forth the effort.


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Iraq Attacks? What about US attacks... (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, January 19 @ 03:48:05 EST
You wrote:

Wouldn't using cyberattacks as a justification for real life retaliation obligate the US, at least in principle, to declare war on all countries that are home to hackers who have attacked the US' information infrastructure?


I bet a fair number of those "hackers who have attacked" have their "home"s in the US...

So taking this logic to it's logical conclusion, the US whould have to declare war on itself!!!


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Re: Iraq Attacks (Score: 1)
by tbt on Monday, January 20 @ 08:39:53 EST
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You said, "There have been no details disclosed, and "[t]here is some skepticism over whether Mr. Hussein's regime has the technical capability or the desire to initiate such attacks", which leads one to ask, reasonably, whether the report is accurate, or exaggerated anti-Iraq propaganda. "

While I share your cynicism about anything the current US regime says regarding Iraq, I must point out that Iraq (and Iran) have rather higher IT tech skills at their beck and call than is commonly realised.

For example, as I said a few months ago, in an article for UPI on the subject:

"Both Iran and Iraq, two of the three countries in President Bush's "axis of evil," are cited by Brainbench Inc, a skill certification company, as having "an increasingly sophisticated level of information technology expertise," according to the skills-testing company's annual Global Information Technology Intelligence Quotient (IT IQ) Report." .

but hey, what do I know compared with the Us "intelligence community".


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Re: Iraq Attacks (Score: 1)
by yalie05 on Monday, January 27 @ 22:53:20 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.withindreams.com
If Bush were to act on such a principle and "declare war on all countries that are home to hackers who have attacked the US".. he'd be jumping from the fire into the inferno, methinks.


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