Printers are munitions?
Last Sunday on The Learning Channel there was a somewhat silly program on information warfare. One thing which caught my attention however, was a claim by Win Schwartau (of inforwar fame) that NSA had placed narrow band transmitters in printers which wound up in air defense sites in Iraq. Subsequently the transmissions were used for targeting durring the gulf war. Has anyone heard of a separate source for this?
At 9:24 AM -0800 5/13/97, Sidney R. Phillips wrote:
Last Sunday on The Learning Channel there was a somewhat silly program on information warfare. One thing which caught my attention however, was a claim by Win Schwartau (of inforwar fame) that NSA had placed narrow band transmitters in printers which wound up in air defense sites in Iraq. Subsequently the transmissions were used for targeting durring the gulf war. Has anyone heard of a separate source for this?
I don't know the context of these precise points, but the "printers sent to Iraq had viruses in them" story was widely reported several years ago. Except it turns out the stories all were rip-offs and repetitions, from all appearances, of a story which ran in "Infoworld." And except that the story in "Infoworld" was the April 1st edition. That so many journalists repeated this as the "opening shot in I-War" says a lot about the state of cyber-journalism. As for transmitters in printers, this sounds like a variant. Plus, I wouldn't think there was enough time between the start of the buildup of the U.S. response and the air attacks for the plan to be hatched, for the Iraqis to place and receive orders, etc. And the chance of some random printer ending up in an air defense station seems unlikely. And so on. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
On Tue, 13 May 1997, Tim May wrote:
As for transmitters in printers, this sounds like a variant. Plus, I wouldn't think there was enough time between the start of the buildup of the U.S. response and the air attacks for the plan to be hatched, for the Iraqis to place and receive orders, etc. And the chance of some random printer ending up in an air defense station seems unlikely. And so on.
Besides the fact that the US wasn't exporting anything to IRAQ at the time, along with most of the rest of the western world, where would they have bought printers from? (Unless of course they were purchased before the invasion of Kuwait, but they were our allies until we misled them... hmmmmmmmm...) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryan Anderson - <Pug Majere> "Who knows, even the horse might sing" Wayne State University - CULMA randerso@ece.eng.wayne.edu Ohio = VYI of the USA PGP Fingerprint - 7E 8E C6 54 96 AC D9 57 E4 F8 AE 9C 10 7E 78 C9 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
At 11:19 AM -0800 5/13/97, Ryan Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 13 May 1997, Tim May wrote:
As for transmitters in printers, this sounds like a variant. Plus, I wouldn't think there was enough time between the start of the buildup of the U.S. response and the air attacks for the plan to be hatched, for the Iraqis to place and receive orders, etc. And the chance of some random printer ending up in an air defense station seems unlikely. And so on.
Besides the fact that the US wasn't exporting anything to IRAQ at the time, along with most of the rest of the western world, where would they have bought printers from?
Well, of course the U.S. wasn't shipping to Iraq at this time. I didn't even cite this as a reason because the embargo began in August of 1990. The original Infoworld story cited Jordan (if I remember correctly) as the place the printers had the viruses placed in them, to make the story sound more plausible. I do believe the U.S. has used information warfare methods, of course. Lots of examples, including Inslaw and Systematics, etc. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
On Tue, 13 May 1997, Sidney R. Phillips wrote:
One thing which caught my attention however, was a claim by Win Schwartau (of inforwar fame) that NSA had placed narrow band transmitters in printers which wound up in air defense sites in Iraq. Subsequently the transmissions were used for targeting durring the gulf war. Has anyone heard of a separate source for this?
_2600 Magazine_ had an article about this a few years back, called "Gulf War Printer Virus," I believe. I think in that version of the story, it wasn't a narrow band xmitter but a virus that affected a computer connected to the printer's parallel port, infecting itself via the sole pin ("out of paper" i think it said) on the port that xmitted from printer to computer rather than the normal other way around. As to whether or not this virus was of the computer or media variety, however, remains to be seen. m
participants (4)
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Michael Stutz -
Ryan Anderson -
Sidney R. Phillips -
Tim May