Re: [GZG] [HIST] Military Hackers

On Sun, 25 Oct 1998 14:44:28 -0500, Adrian Johnson
<ajohnson@idirect.com>
wrote:

>There's scope here for great mischief at all levels...  Sure you can
mess
>with the other guy's economy (didn't Tom Clancy do that in his last big
>epic in the "Jack Ryan becomes President and Saves the World" series?? 
It
>was the Japanese nuking the US economy by wiping out Wall St. trading
>records...).  

Yes, he did. Unfortunately Clancy doesn't know as much about computer
systems
or international stock trading as he really should for a book like this.
He
completely gaffed the computer end of it. In short, it wouldn't have
worked.

Then there's the absolutely ridiculous ending that had me in stitches. I
hear
Rainbox Six is better (I'm having fun with the computer game). Maybe
he's
finally been forced to take on an editor...

>On a level more applicable to our gaming stuff, picture
>special operations troops trained to attack and take over an enemy
>communications/data nexus.  They break in, crack into the data systems
and
>dump in viruses, etc etc etc.	I figure that in the future dedicated
>military data communication systems will have to be (as much as
possible)
>seperated from civilian networks.  

I disagree, for the same reason that military ground transportation
isn't
separate from civilian ground transportation. What is obvious is that
you can
cripple a nation without even TOUCHING it's military data communications
systems. Collapse the US economy, and it won't matter how good the
military
is. If the hackers are terrorists in a nation that does not condone the
activity, there isn't much you can do militarily anyway.

No, I think in the future a general hardening of the infrastructure will
be
needed. Unfortunately, governments have to realize for this to happen
companies and individuals need strong crypto. I fear it will take a
failure on
a massive scale for this to become obvious...

>I could see a "commando" type unit raiding one of these commo points to
>break into their network.  It would make an interesting scenario in a
SGII
>campaign game, at the very least.  If you succeed in getting your
>"specialists" into a comms bunker, the enemy force suffers in the next
>couple of games from poor command-and-control - all kinds of game
effects
>you could use...

Hmmm. I see this as too easy to cut off. If I knew my comms bunker was
about
to fall, I'd just cut that node off the network. Stop taking anything
from it.
I suspect that this would be a small, special forces operation (or an
intelligence op) ala Cyberpunk-like activities. I don't see this being
an
overt militarty operation on the scale used in SG2.

I personally think that Infowar will be so different from conventional
warfare
as to be impossible to game with current miniatures rules.

Allan Goodall	       agoodall@sympatico.ca

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart