Bloggers threat to National Security, OPEN SEASON

WASHINGTON - It's the government's idea of a really bad day: Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York go dark. Bloggers reveal locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers are disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid is found on London's subway.

And that's just for starters.

Those incidents were among dozens of detailed, mock disasters confronting officials rapid-fire in the U.S. government's biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise to test the nation's hacker defenses, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.

The laundry list of fictional catastrophes -- which include hundreds of people on "No Fly" lists suddenly arriving at airport ticket counters -- is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps people in the White House awake at night.

Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files.

As James Joyner at OTB points out,

Let me get this straight:

The AP is publishing cyber-security planning scenarios, thus making it easy for the enemy to know what's not being planned for.

The major papers are routinely publishing reports on highly classified documents.

Bureaucrats and Congressmen who are losing turf battles leak state secrets all the time.
And it's bloggers that they're worried about?

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Since when does the USA government let attacks go unanswered?
All they talk about is improving defenses,
LOOK AT USA's SHORE BATTERIES our defensive coast forts.
DEFENSE ISN'T THE ANSWER.
When it comes to the Internet why does the military forget it's fundamental tactics?
Didn't we go thru this already with Bin Laden, 5 attacks over seas then NYC 911.
If they attack; attack back, CRASH THE SERVER, PHYSICALLY, REMOTELY,
drive the damn head into the platter, raise the temp, shut off the fan, format the whole damn server. There is an entire list of trouble one can do.

Right now there is NO consequences to attacking an USA PC, or network.
OPEN SEASON ON USA COMPUTERS.
Licenses FREE.
PRACTICE HERE IN USA.

GERALD
USA has a right to self defense, USE IT.

Hmm OSINT is a threat then, but military see no need for it, or at least very low priority.

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