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Subject: [mobilize-globally] USA: Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat
Subject:
[MLNews!*] USA: Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat
Date:
Fri, 09 Feb 2001 21:59:01 -0800
From:
"Claudia K White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat
http://www.lycos.com/m.asp?n12
by Declan McCullagh
2:00 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PST
WASHINGTON -- These must be jittery times for anyone in the military
who uses the Internet.
Not only do they have to guard against Love Bug worms and security
holes in Microsoft Outlook -- now they've got to
worry about Fidel Castro hacking into their computers.
See also:
Discuss this story on Plastic.com
Crypto: Three Decades in Review
Bin Laden: Stegonography Master?
The Feds'll Come A-Snoopin'
Keep an eye on Privacy Matters
Everybody's got issues in Politics
Admiral Tom Wilson, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says the
74-year-old communist dictator may be preparing
a cyberattack against the United States.
Wilson told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a public hearing
Wednesday that Castro's armed forces could
initiate an "information warfare or computer network attack" that
could "disrupt our military."
The panel later went into closed session to discuss classified
material.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked in response: "And you would say that
there is a real threat that they might go that
route?"
Replied Wilson: "There's certainly the potential for them to employ
those kind of tactics against our modern and
superior military."
He said that Cuba's conventional military might was lacking, but its
intelligence operations were substantial.
The partly classified hearing is an annual event -- and an important
one: It represents this year's World Threat
Assessment discussion. That's a chance for the intelligence committee
to set its agenda for this session of Congress
and hear from senior intelligence officials about the latest national
security threats.
In addition to the aging president of Cuba, witnesses and senators
both cited encryption as another
technology-related threat during a far-ranging discussion that also
encompassed nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the committee's hawkish chairman, said
that the classified hearing later in the day
would "explore the challenges posed by, among others, the
proliferation of encryption technology, the increasing
sophistication of denial and deception techniques, the need to
modernize and to recapitalize the National Security
Agency, and other shortfalls in intelligence funding."
Shelby has been a vehement opponent of any proposal to remove
encryption export regulations. In 1998, he said "the
effects on U.S. national security must be the paramount concern when
considering any proposed change to encryption
export policy."
He is currently the co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus. Last
week, Shelby sent out a press release saying,
"Personal privacy is one of the most important issues that we must
confront in the new world of the information
economy."
At the January 1998 World Threat Assessment hearing, the talk also
turned to encryption. "I don't want to tell some
father that we've lost a child because we couldn't break the telephone
conversation or we couldn't get to a storage
disk or something like that," FBI deputy director Bob Bryant told the
panel at the time. "And that's all we're
saying."
continued
Also warning of the dangers of encryption products, which let users
shield communications from prying eyes, was CIA
Director George Tenet, who has frequently spoken out against the
technology in the past.
Tenet testified that terrorists such as Osama bin Laden are now using
the Internet and encryption to cloak
communications within their organizations. "So, you know, you recruit
people on Internet sites, and you use
encryption," Tenet said. "You move your operational planning and
judgments over Internet sites' use of encryption.
You raise money."
His comments come as a series of newspaper articles have highlighted
how bin Laden allegedly uses encryption -- and a
variant of the technology, called steganography -- to evade U.S.
efforts to monitor his organization.
Tenet said that bin Laden "and his global network of lieutenants and
associates remain the most immediate and serious
threat" to America.
And what about Castro? It might seem odd to view a country best known
for starving livestock, Elian Gonzalez and
acute toilet paper shortages as a looming threat, but the Pentagon
seems entirely serious.
The DIA's Wilson said: "Cuba is, Senator, not a strong conventional
military threat. But their ability to ploy
asymmetric tactics against our military superiority would be
significant. They have strong intelligence apparatus,
good security and the potential to disrupt our military through
asymmetric tactics."
Asymmetric tactics is military-ese for terrorist tactics when your
opponent has a huge advantage in physical power.
Shortly after those comments, Shelby adjourned the hearing until the
afternoon, when it resumed behind closed doors.
This week's drumbeat of criticism about encryption and steganography
from within Washington's national security
circles may hint at congressional efforts to impose additional
restrictions on the technologies. President Clinton
relaxed -- but did not remove -- rules governing the export or
Internet distribution of encryption products.
=============================
Claudia White~Main Line News
http://www.angelfire.com/ut/Angel1
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