| Monday
April 13, 2009 Grid hacks
Jerry,
As regards the concerns/statements in the discussion
of grid hacks in Mail earlier this week, the WSJ at
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB123914805204099085.html discusses the problem. While it does not
explicitly identify the type/nature of systems at risk from the hacks (which
information may well be sensitive), it strongly implies that the hacks
potential affect control systems rather than administrative infrastructure.
Jim
===========
Subject: The Secret Menace
April 9, 2009: In the United States, the FBI deals
with computer crime. Last year, the FBI received 275,000 reports of computer
crimes, involving losses of $265 million. Actual losses, and incidents, are
believed to be several times larger. The reported incidents were up 33
percent from the previous year. Most of the losses were due to credit card
and bank fraud. There was also a lot of information theft and corporate (and
military) espionage. A lot of the hacking, and fraud, is facilitated by
email. Currently, about 94 percent of all email is spam, seeking to run
scams or infect PCs with software that will take them over.
The extent and effectiveness of this Internet based
crime has military implications, because the same tools used by criminal
hackers, are employed by Cyber War specialists. For military users, the key
tactic is building a large arsenal of Cyber War weapons. It works like this.
Cyber War weapons consist of freshly discovered, and exploitable, defects in
software that runs on the Internet. You want to be the first person to find
one of these defects, because these flaws enable a hacker to get into other
peoples networks. Called "Zero Day Exploits" (ZDEs), in the right hands,
these flaws can enable criminals to pull off a large online heist, or Cyber
Warriors can do enormous damage to enemy networks.
China, for example, obtains these ZDEs the same way
they have become the place where software manufacturers go to get their
software (especially game software) tested cheaply, and thoroughly. In
China, you can fill up a large hall hundreds of bright, but otherwise
unemployed, Chinese guys, equip them with PCs, and instructions on what to
do to test software. Offer bonuses for those who find flaws, and off you go.
Finding ZDEs is basically the same drill, except it takes a week or so of
on-the-job training to familiarize your searchers with the testing and
searching tools (some of them available at hacking sites) used to dig around
in software for flaws.
Every time a publisher patches software (Windows,
WORD, email software, various browsers, and so on), they create new flaws.
As soon as the publisher finds an exploitable flaw, they patch them. So
there's never a lack of work for the ZDE crews. Some of these exploit
research operations work for criminal gangs, that quickly use the ZDE for
some scam, or auction the ZDE off to someone who can, or thinks they can,
make a buck with it.
It's unclear what the relationship is between the
government supported (Cyber War) ZDE search operations, and those run by
criminal gangs. Because ZDEs are perishable, maintaining an arsenal of them
is expensive. But apparently the military sells of some of those that appear
to have more criminal than military value. At the same time, the Chinese
Cyber War organization may be buying those with more military than criminal
value.
Another way to make the most of ZDEs is to use them,
when it appears they are about to be neutralized by a software patch. The
ZDEs can be used to infiltrate lots of PCs, especially government or
military ones, or in civilian organizations that have military potential,
and install secret control software. This turns the compromised PCs into
"zombies" that can be taken over whenever you want (or at least those that
don't get dezombified, which often happens the longer the zombie software is
in place.)
Even before ZDEs became a valuable commodity, there
were individuals, and small groups, that sought them out. But apparently the
Chinese approach is much more productive. The Chinese criminal gangs are
becoming much more active in Internet related crime as a result. There has
also been an upsurge in known attacks on American government sites, that
appear to emanate from China. Governments find that they can use the
Internet criminal techniques for espionage, and this has become a major
activity with military Cyber War organizations.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20090409.aspx
The situation is serious, but perhaps this draws
a bit too dark a picture. But the resources devoted to attacking the Net
have been greatly increased.
===========
LA Civil War Round Table
http://www.geocities.com/lacwrt/index.html
The above link concerns my next presentation.
Sincerely,
Francis Hamit
=========
Re: an absent friend
I’ve been reading the Chaos Manor mail and view for
years, except for the occasional block of time where I’m too swamped by work
or family to check up. It looks like I didn’t read Chaos Manor the month you
announced that Frank Gasperik had passed away. I learned about it just now
through an accidental Internet search, two years too late. It explains why I
haven’t seen any postings of his in that long. I knew that he liked to
frequent the Sci Fi conventions when he was able to do so, and he mentioned
having known you and Larry Niven. In fact, I got turned on to Ringworld and
Inferno because of Frank, not to mention a lot of other things. My
subsequent Internet searches revealed how little I knew about how well known
he really was. What a bloody shame he died so young. I figured he’d outlast
both Twinkies and cockroaches. I’d often drifted away and caught up with him
later. Several times, in fact. I figured the routine would last quite a
while longer. Alas, not this time.
Thanks for posting the news, even if I didn’t catch it
at the time.
BTW, he pointed out his appearance in Footfall. I,
however, believe I see his likeness in Inferno and Escape from Hell. Is
“Frank the Hell’s Angel” modeled after Frank Gasperik?
Henry Wyckoff
Frank Gasperik appears in Lucifer's Hammer,
Footfall, and of course in Fallen Angels. He does not appear in either
INFERNO or ESCAPE FROM HELL.
==========
re kill ratio
There was an SF story about a pilot in a fancy jet
fighter who got knocked back in time to WW1. He went up to fight a wing of
enemy WW1 fighters and saw nothing on his radar and landed very
disappointed. But everyone was cheering because he had blown the entire
flight out of the sky
TMTCTMTSTS
RH
============
who is right
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30091093/
Both Russia and the US are building Moon spacecraft.
The US is switching from a reuseable to a nonreuseable craft. Russia is
switching from a nonreuseable to a reusable craft. Who do you think is
right?
R H
The answer to that is a much longer essay than I
have time to give now. The short answer is, how quick do you want to go
somewhere, and are you trying to build the infrastructure to become a
space-faring nation. For a few missions expendables are much cheaper; for
the long haul, reusable is proper. See
The SSX Concept and
How To Get To Space
===========
Computing At Chaos Manor, copyrights
Jerry,
I enjoyed this month's article.
You mentioned that you had stories in both Galaxy and
Analog. I subscribed to Analog for a good while, but I wasn't aware you had
stories in those magazines. I would like to know how I could read your
stories published in those magazines, if its possible. Also, do authors
still own the copyright to those stories, so that they might be re-published
elsewhere?
Google is now publishing some older magazines, which I
think is a good idea. Its not likely they will get much income from old
magazines, they aren't even getting much from new ones.
Regards,
Randy Lea
Nearly all my short stories have been
incorporated into other works.
EXILE -- AND GLORY.
FIRES OF FREEDOM, and
THE PRINCE, all from Baen Books, have just about all of them.
===============
Teachers Learn to Help Kids Behave
Jerry
You'd think they invented the wheel! In preschool, "By
giving children more time for dramatic or pretend play, and by building into
the school day more lessons in self control, researchers are seeing both big
reductions in bad behavior, and gains in cognitive skills:"
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB123914405198998725.html
Imagine that! Instead of forcing kids to "school" when
they should be out playing, these programs actually allow kids to . . . oh,
this is just so revolutionary! . . . actually get in something that
resembles play. I, for one, am stunned that the Feds would allow such a
thing.
Ed
I think the best prescription for most -- not
all, but most -- cases of ADD in boys is recess and physical ed.
=====================d
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