As Charlie Winter noted recently at War on the Rocks, the Islamic State’s robust social media apparatus has been propagating a remarkably effective, multi-faceted communications strategy that incorporates narratives of statehood, military success, and religious legitimacy. The Islamic State’s success in using social media to disseminateits extremist ideas and mobilize tens of thousands of foreign…
Category: Cyber-Warfare
It is Time for the U.S. Military to Innovate like Insurgents
These three Army captains built a gun that kills drones. It took them ten hours and cost $150. What can the Army learn from them? The recently concluded meeting of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) has become a yearly tradition for senior military leaders, congressional staff, and members of foreign armies to…
Facebook Friend or Terrorist: Who’s in Your Online Social Network?
As a law enforcement officer in Northeast Florida, the arrest of a 19-year-old local man named Shelton Thomas Bell got my attention. In January of this year, Bell was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He burned American flags, recruited support locally, conducted “training…
The Future of Warfare: 5 Coolest Land Warfare Robots
The days when the Army sent in ground troops without robots are long past. At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference, (AUSA) even the trucks were at least partially robotic. As Training and Doctrine Command’s Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins recently said, robot steering offers “advantages that would provide additional protection to forces, or…
U.S. Navy Returns to Celestial Navigation Amid Fears of Computer Hack
Not being DEPENDENT on technology is a skill-set guys; because with one EMP blast, the RESET button gets punched and we are back to the stone age. I will be posting more on this. -SF “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with…
Iran’s Cyber-Espionage Tricks
A group of suspected Iranian hackers are using a sophisticated network of fake LinkedIn profiles to spy on unsuspecting targets worldwide — including the U.S. — according to a new report. The fake personas fell into two groups: one set that were fully developed profiles posing as recruiters for major worldwide government contractors and international…
What @Snowden told me about NSA’s Cyberweapons
By James Bamford Stephen Gerwin, chief of the Howard County Bureau of Utilities, it was “a peculiar project.” His workers were told they needed to get background checks and sign nondisclosure forms before they could begin work on a wastewater pump station in a forested area near the Little Patuxent River. “You sign a document…
DHS wants Boeing to Test Brain Chip
The Department of Homeland Security is funding a Boeing company to create a “brain chip” for its self-destructing Black smartphone that could be adapted for any device, DHS officials say. The technology powering the devices potentially could identify the user’s walking style, for example. Officials would be alerted if the gait does not match the authorized user’s…
Engineering Humans for War
By Annie Jacobsen Inside the Pentagon’s efforts to create a super-soldier—and change the future of the battlefield. Retired four-star general Paul F. Gorman recalls first learning about the “weakling of the battlefield” from reading S.L.A. Marshall, the U.S. Army combat historian during World War II. After interviewing soldiers who participated in the Normandy beach landings,…
The CIA’s Campaign to Steal Apple’s Secrets
RESEARCHERS WORKING with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept. The security researchers presented their latest tactics and achievements at a secret annual gathering, called the “Jamboree,” where attendees discussed strategies for exploiting security…