Here's A Test

Are we sure Sarah Palin isn't behind all of this mayhem?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

I'm not nearly sophisticated enough in this area to speak intelligently on what our technological response ought to be. But I would think that there would be very little purpose in striking back technologically without everyone knowing what we did and why, otherwise how could it serve as a lesson to the North Koreans or as a deterrent to others that might choose to pursue this course? Nevertheless, if we were to respond in kind wouldn't we just be diverting their attention away from their own internal struggles at the precise moment that these internal struggle could blow the regime apart? Thinking about the Iran model, if we were to turn the lights off in Pyongyang wouldn't we just be helping internal forces to solidify and grow strong by using the US as a foil to create national unity in opposition to an outside foe?

In the world before ARPANET, if you wanted to connect to a computer you had to dial into it or run a physical wire. In this day and age, if you want an actual secure network you still have to run your own wire.
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The net is great and I love it, but there are certain tasks that it simply should never have been trusted to do.

Infect all their engineers' computers with porn to distract them from their nuclear research.
Unless pictures of food would tempt them more.

I believe it was Napoleon who said: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. If the North Koreans are having a crisis, our interference would just give them a common enemy. If we can figure out who was in charge of this attack, then we can hit back after their current crisis is over.

Joe, that is so bizarre it just might work

Joe: Since a Cyberattack is a covert operation, it would surprise me if the response by the CIA/NSA were not covert as well, at least initially. The key being that the demonstration of our sophisticated capabilities does not reveal said capabilities.
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Having recently visited South Korea, where the "crazy uncle" paradigm helps to reduce anxiety about KJI, I'd guess that NK's neighbors would be interested to know what's going on, but not surprised, either.
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Re: "...turn the electricity in Pyongyang on and off a few times..."
Brilliant! The thought of KJI resetting the VCR while Windows95 reboots on his Gateway brings a smile...;)

If there is a response we had better make sure China is on board with it.

I'm less worried about a cyber-attack from North Korea than I am one from China (or India). Given how much of the software engineering is out-sourced any more, I wonder what would happen if we pissed them off enough that they decided to jerk OUR chain a little.
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Anyone wonder just how vulnerable OUR infrastructure is to such an attack by someone with multiples of the resources of North Korea?
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We can't even get all of the "holes" in Windows patched.

None of this really makes sense unless some North Korean computer agents wanted something to brag about to their friends at the next Star Trek convention. A state sponsored cyberattack is only successful if nobody finds out about it.
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If a North Korean spam flood attack creates laws that makes spamming punishable by death then I'll send Kim Jong-il a thank-you note.

A state sponsored cyberattack is only successful if nobody finds out about it.
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Right. A successful "test" will be obvious to the intruder but the target will be totally unaware it happened or attribute it to "routine" causes and will see no need to investigate further.

" .. If so, what's the appropriate retaliation? .."

Yes, this is a test alright.

What was that good response: "Aroint thee Satan?"

1) Should we assume that we, and our citizens, don't dabble in like pursuits targeting foreign countries (like Saddam's Iraq) and their institutions? What should their response be?

2) Are we a sham (much like our pious godly siren of the bloodletting and agitation in Iran, Pakistan/Afghanistan) or are we a nation of christians under THAT god of boundless holiness - mercy, meekness, forgiveness?

"Vicious retaliation" or "turn the other cheek"?

[Answer: When dealing with the strong, be circumspect. With the weak - choose whichever option is more thrilling/amusing/convenient - more lucrative - more bloody. To the happy-go-lucky judeo-christians any answer is OK - if you can "rationalize" it - however insincere/duplicitous. But remember to repent afterward. Forgiveness is guaranteed. Sin->repent->sin->re.. and on and on. Crusaders' caveat: It is like the game of musical chairs: Don't get caught dead before you repent.]

There is another way! The Jacksons ALSO shut down the internet recently. We launch a state level internet shutdown of Joe Jackson, Neverland Ranch, et al (leaving out Janet who suffered enough during the Timberlake double agent double cross a few years ago, she can stay online), and then hold the evidence up for the world to see: if we could scrub the internet of the Jacksons this week, we could certainly take North Korea offline. It'll be like the head on a pike at the castle wall.

afguy " .. the target will be totally unaware (a successful "test") happened or attribute it to "routine" causes "

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historyisaweapon 12:28 pm " .. There is another way! The Jacksons ALSO shut down the internet recently. .."

Ahem.
Hey, very clever that Tito guy: Those jacksons launched a cyber attack on us - and we suspected them of nothing! We even blamed it on ...
Retaliation!

So how about if the North Koreans did this in an attempt to flush us out and see if we could/would respond? They might be wondering if we're the reason their missile launches have been failing; perhaps we can hack their missile launch.
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I would hope we have lots of very bright people working on cyber security 24/7 regardless of holidays.
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Otherwise I agree with Dee at #2, and JoeB at #4 - that's very funny.

[...] Joe Klein at Swampland in Time: Is it possible that the North Koreans launched a July 4 cyber attack on the US government? If so, what’s the appropriate retaliation? Should we turn the electricity in Pyongyang on and off a few times, if we can do it? [...]

" .. The question is, when and how? Do we use the NK attack-if that's what it was-to demonstrate to other would-be perpetrators that we have sophisticated capabilities in this area? .."

In the same manner that we 'demonstrated' our capabilities for mass human slaughter at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

As if the pious we are averse to testing/demonstrating capabilities - without detection.

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"-if that's what it was-"! What have we learnt about our adventurism and crimes against humanity in Iraq?
Should we persist in using baseless conjectures - such as "-if that's what it is-" - as a justification for carnage that kills multitudes of innocent old men, women and kids?

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Could it be that the attacks are the work of our guys - who honed their skills in Saddam's Iraq and lately have been active in (and stymied by) Iran - who are masquerading as NK to fuel animosities in the region and to give us a pretext for the start of a bloodbath we may yearn for in that region?

Joe-
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This wasn't a very sophisticated attack. DoS attacks can be done by a 12 year old with access to a botnet. If this was indeed orchestrated by NK, it was crude. The media is making a huge deal out of nothing. DoS attacks attract attention but they don't do any real damage.
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As for this being committed by a "major organization or state", DDoS attacks, which is what this was, have been occuring for years, and it can be done by one person. All it takes is to send out a trojan or virus that's precoded to access certain sites on specific days. Let the virus spread for a while and all of a sudden you have thousands of computers that will initiate your DDoS attack for you.
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If the US feels like we have to respond to this, then our capability is not very sophisticated at all...

As long as they don't take down the Department of Law, I figure it's probably not that big a deal.

I think that we should handle it the same way we handle covert operations against us. Not being in the CIA, I'm not sure what that would be, but we certainly don't want to do what we did to Belgrade. That was in the middle of an already existing war.
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The problem being that a highly publicized response (no media will miss it) will trigger local politics (in NK) and with their backs to the wall in full view of the world, would feel compelled to take extreme measures.
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I think that is the premise behind covert operations and counteroperations.

I could take the opposite position and say just blow a gaping hole in the planet where NK is, but then, the planet would likely wobble as it rotates.
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And that can't be good, so I'll stick with my previous suggestion...

How would we strike back? Aren't their PCs just Etch-a-Sketchs?

FYI, we have plenty of "dark" cable runs not connected to the Internet - note the capital 'I' - for our serious operations and hacking into those would be a bit tougher than this article suggests. As an IT guy, I'm not terribly worried about it.

Must a crime INVOLVE A CELEBRITY FOR IT TO BE RIGOROUSLY AND CONTINUOUSLY INVESTIGATED???? WHat happened to truth in journalism.

I am an innocent Law abiding citizen have been illegally wiretapped by Shay Riley of the “Black Female Interracial Marriage blog” and not ONE investigative journalist has had to the courage of ability to uncover these digital hoodlums, these cyber fiends, these crass online Psychopath, Shay Riley aka Evia Moore aka Halima Sal Andersen.

Shay Riley of the “Black Female Interracial marriage blog” is a serial Predator who has illegally wiretapped my phone for years. This woman activates the microphone om my cell and home phones and uses it to listen to the conversations in my life. This woman runs very many interracial marriage sites pretending to be interracially married and using the lives of legitimately married women like me as fodder for her PREVARICATION.She is married to a BLACK NIGERIAN CROOK NAMED AKBAR SHABZZ of the “Project 21 site”-.

Why should the ability of these FELONS to access hundreds of legitimate websites and alter information enable them stay free. They continue to elude law enforcement and commit felony after felony.

This woman is a VILE PREDATOR who in all probability molests and abuses her own children. Why can this matter not be persistently and continuously investigated by an elite journalist and the truth found out???

Screaming BLACK POWER and running many various black power blogs should not be cover for this vile REPROBATE. But it is. Why is she not in jail Why is she free to write nonsense and scurry around committing unprecedented inavsion of privacy, felonies and probably sexually abusing and molesting her OWN CHILDREN!! WHY????

The FBI and the US Secret Service have not been able to route this woman. See her on ww.akbarshabazz.com. When people say they look ordinary, I say WHAT DO YOU EXPECT??? A sign on Shay Riley which reads, “I am a Felon and illegally wiretap and Send Trojans and spy ware to innocent law abiding citizens computers so that I can criminally stalk them, steal from them, co opt their lives experiences and oh, yes since I am a psychopath, I probably molest my children too.”!!! NO, she has to appear ordinary to lure and assault unassuming people online and elsewhere!

WHY SHOULD THIS WOMAN who runs hundreds of websites under numerous aliases, a fiend who listens to and records my calls even activating my microphones to follow my life and uses Trojans/spyware for my computers BE FREE?????

Can these CYBER Bots Shay Riley, her husband Akbar SHabazz and their accomplices be capable of deceiving the slew of so called ELITE TECHNOLOGY AND CRIME INVESTIGATORS???

I think NK just attacked us, Joe.
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Should we nuke 'em now?
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/snarkage