Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cyberspace safety - A military concern

Recently I saw a commercial about the United States Air Force protecting us from enemies in cyberspace. They mentioned how we are and will be much more dependent on cyberspace which is why they have people to monitor cyberspace for any attacks.

It sounds like they are mostly looking for people who will try to shut down systems such as our electricity that are controlled by computers, not hackers or widespread virus. But who knows? I was wondering if anyone else knew more about what the Air Force is doing.

Secondly, why is it that the Air Force is in charge of cyberspace? If it is such national concern, should we have a separate military division for it? We could have the Cyberspace Force. It is possible in the future if it is big enough, we may actually have another military division.

Take a look and see what you think.
http://www.airforce.com/

-Patricia Chan

1 comment:

Brian Tan said...

It seems that the Air Force cyber command stems from the Air Force's command of thermonuclear ballistic missiles. The communications network of missile silos needed to be secure to retaliate from a first-strike nuclear attack which is intended to disable the communications infrastructure via EMP (electromagnetic pulse) to prevent silos from receiving launch orders. Thus, the Internet was invented to send orders over a decentralized network so that a to insure MAD (mutually assured destruction).

Over the years, the Internet was opened for civilian use and the U.S. economy has become integrated and dependent on it. So rivals of the U.S. have sought to disrupt the Internet to disrupt the economy. Since hackers can wage economic warfare, securing the Internet is a matter of national defense.

There is rising concern that Russia is sponsoring its hackers to disrupt the networks of its neighbors, Estonia and Georgia, to further its foreign interests.

Frontline|Cyberwar