Somebody set us up the bomb? But in all honesty, this is actually a pretty good thing as foreign countries and other third parties have been stealing all kinds of goodies from federal databases like it was going out of style.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/23/pentagon-creates-cyber-command/
From CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday signed a memorandum establishing for the first time a military command aimed at conducting cyber warfare, and defending the military's computer network.
The so-called Cyber Command — -also known as USCYBERCOM — is expected to be headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, and headed by the director of the National Security Agency, according to Pentagon officials. The new command will report to the U.S. Strategic Command, which has overall military responsibility for protecting military networks.
"We're increasingly dependent on cyberspace, and there's a growing array of cyber threats," said said Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a Department of Defense spokesman. To counter the risk, the department "requires a command possessing the required technical capability and which remains focused on streamlining cyberspace operations," he added.
The top members of the House Armed Services commended the move, and the recommendation that Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, currently the director of the National Security Agency, lead the agency.
"Cyber operations are a critical part of our national security and will only become more important in the years ahead. We commend Secretary Gates for establishing a Cyber Command under STRATCOM, which will focus on these issues in a joint and coordinated way," said House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington State, who chairs a subcommittee on terrorism and unconventional threats.
The Pentagon has acknowledged in the past that it is the target of thousands of attempts daily by entities looking for ways to gain access to the Department of Defense computer system.
A recent Pentagon report to Congress about China's military power said China has been making continued progress in developing cyber warfare techniques. The report noted that U.S. government computers were the target of "intrusions that appear to have originated" from China, although they were not confirmed to be from the Chinese military.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
