Congress is absolutely right to bring this to everyone's attention. Fidel Castro is a demon coder who can crank out code at an astonishing rate given a sufficient supply of brandy, nachos and cigars. In the bleakest moments of the cold war when the russian army was poised to roll into Western Europe we British would always think of the example set by the plucky little USA facing a global superpower in the Caribean poised to overwhelm it at any moment. Phill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Declan McCullagh" To: ; Sent: Friday, February 09, 2001 9:38 AM Subject: Pentagon warns Fidel Castro could launch cyberattack against U.S.

----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh -----

********* Transcript of hearing: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/02/08/1638232 1998 transcript: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/02/08/0526201 *********

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41700,00.html

Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 2:00 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PST

WASHINGTON -- These must be jittery times for anyone in the military who uses the Internet.

Not only do they have to guard against Love Bug worms and security holes in Microsoft Outlook -- now they've got to worry about Fidel Castro hacking into their computers.

Admiral Tom Wilson, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says the 74-year-old communist dictator may be preparing a cyberattack against the United States.

Wilson told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a public hearing Wednesday that Castro's armed forces could initiate an "information warfare or computer network attack" that could "disrupt our military."

The panel later went into closed session to discuss classified material.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked in response: "And you would say that there is a real threat that they might go that route?"

Replied Wilson: "There's certainly the potential for them to employ those kind of tactics against our modern and superior military."

He said that Cuba's conventional military might was lacking, but its intelligence operations were substantial.

The partly classified hearing is an annual event -- and an important one: It represents this year's World Threat Assessment discussion. That's a chance for the intelligence committee to set its agenda for this session of Congress and hear from senior intelligence officials about the latest national security threats.

In addition to the aging president of Cuba, witnesses and senators both cited encryption as another technology-related threat during a far-ranging discussion that also encompassed nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the committee's hawkish chairman, said that the classified hearing later in the day would "explore the challenges posed by, among others, the proliferation of encryption technology, the increasing sophistication of denial and deception techniques, the need to modernize and to recapitalize the National Security Agency, and other shortfalls in intelligence funding."

[...]

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----- End forwarded message -----

Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:

...

Congress is absolutely right to bring this to everyone's attention. Fidel Castro is a demon coder who can crank out code at an astonishing rate given a sufficient supply of brandy, nachos and cigars.

In the bleakest moments of the cold war when the russian army was poised to roll into Western Europe we British would always think of the example set by the plucky little USA facing a global superpower in the Caribean poised to overwhelm it at any moment.

Not to mention all that rhythm.

Save America from an overwhelming wave of salsa.

Nuke them NOW. Some things are just too horrible to risk. -- "To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished."--Pierre Proudhon