dslreports logo
 story category
Uh, Mom? The Air Force Just Attacked Our PC
Air Force colonel wants to wage war on unsecured machines...

U.S. Air Force Colonel Charlie Williamson complains to the BBC that the government has been "on the defensive" when it comes to cyber-warfare and fighting botnets. His solution? Williamson proposes creating a "friendly botnet" that can be used in an offensive capacity to take out pesky cyber terrorists. Oh, and your grandma's old Dell Windows ME box if need be:

quote:
...he argues that if a computer owner has failed to use anti-virus software and install the latest security patches, that machine may be a legitimate military target. "It may, in the right circumstance, be worthwhile and even fair for the US to hit a computer that is hitting us and stop it from harming us for an hour or days when that computer owner failed to take basic steps to protect us," Col Williamson told the programme.
There are of course other, less offense-oriented ways of dealing with botnets, from ISPs putting infected PCs behind walled gardens until they clean up (something Cogeco and Cox helped pioneer), to using swarms of good computers to help defend targets (Project "Phalanx" is an example).

But sure, unleashing the coordinated, digital military might of the United States Air Force on people with outdated anti-virus definitions is also an option.

Most recommended from 67 comments



jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

2 recommendations

jjoshua

Premium Member

What are they going to do?

Spike them!