unoptimized

If there was any doubt, this from CNet (2/4/2010) should clarify:

“White House Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Wednesday that the attacks on Google were a “wake-up call” and that the U.S. is severely under threat of greater cyberattacks. Blair detailed a laundry list of adversaries on the cyberwarfare front, including other nations, terrorist networks, and organized crime groups, all of whom have the knowledge and means to attack U.S. networks to disrupt operations and steal sensitive information.”

If there was any doubt of what is happening, google is going to the NSA for assistance. You don’t go to the NSA for help with criminals. Google is moderately talented. They would not be seeking assistance for anything shy of attacks from a competent state actor.

Call it cyberwar if that makes you feel cool. What matters here is that it is happening. Hacking is passe. This is not the work of bored kids in their parents’ basement. This is not the work of criminal hackers. This is not the work of unemployed Eastern European programmers.

This Wired article has a good introduction to what is playing out now.

This is nation states conducting information warfare. To look at it as other then that, is to miss the importance. No need for me to point fingers. It is clear who is behind this.

“Lancet accepts MMR study ‘false’

The medical journal which originally published the discredited research linking autism and MMR has now issued a full retraction of the paper.”

from: BBC, 2/2/2010

Jenny McCarthy, I would ask you what you think, but that would presuppose you have any analytical capabilities.

“Top Pentagon brass endorse ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’”

from: Christian Science Monitor, 2/2/2010

That is all. move along.

Actually, rot in hell you genocidal motherfucker:

“Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was hanged Monday, ordered the infamous poison gas attack on the northern Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people and earned him the chilling moniker “Chemical Ali.”"

from: the Washington Post, 1/25/2010

“The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an administration official said on Thursday.”

from: The New York Times, 1/22/2010

So much for different. The notion of holding prisoners with out charges and with out end is contrary to everything we are supposed to believe in. And don’t give me the “prisoners of war” bullshit. We were at war with a concept – “Terrorism”, you can argue we are now at war with a movement – “Radical Islam”, but in either case there is no clear definition of who we are fighting or what would constitute an end to hostilities and return these “POWs” to their homes.

Quote from here.

Interesting statistics from 2009 FBI report show crime down and gun sales up significantly. It seems that these are unrelated. This jives with my intuition on the topic. Lets maybe worry about the criminals committing crimes and a little less on what tools they use?

I mean really? It is 2009 and we are killing people with unmanned drones. OK. But the video feeds from these drones are unencrypted and sent in the clear? For the love of god…

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones