-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Declan posted a politech link to a piece by Wayne Madsen:

The cyber-security perception management machinery was also put into high gear in the August 1 edtion of The Washington Times. A story by Ben Barber hyped the threat posed by Palestinian computer users who have launched a so-called "cyber-Jihad" against Israeli government and corporate computers. The article states that the U.S. government-funded firms RAND and iDefense are urging the United States to adopt the same cyber defenses as those used in Israel

NOT TRUE. This is abysmally shitty journalism. Here's what the article actually states: "Israel has warded off dozens of cyber-attacks on its government and corporations since the Palestinian uprising began last year, blazing a trail that could help the United States develop defenses for future electronic conflicts, terrorism experts and Israeli officials say." ... Terrorism experts from RAND and from iDefense, an Alexandria firm advising the U.S. government and industry, say Israel's experience in beating off cyber-attacks will likely serve to protect American government and industry against similar attacks. ... "If the United States came to become involved in activity in the region which generates a significant level of outrage in the Muslim community, there is a distinct possibility that U.S. government and commercial organizations will face cyber attacks much like those hitting Israel today," said the iDefense report. In other words, we can learn something from what's happening in Israel and apply it to our own context and subsequent analysis. "RAND urging to adopt the same defenses" my ASS. Which defenses, when? Under what circumstances? Which specific RAND study, which researcher? How do you derive this so-called RAND position from a few unrelated sentences by Bruce Hoffman? Did he even read the iDefense report, or is he just content to misrepresent the Washington Times piece? One wonders. In sum, where's the proof? Looks like he made it up wholesale because it suited his point to say so. But then, smug fifth-rate hacks who lack basic reading comprehension skills are prone to these sort of overblown whiny smears to score easy brownie points with the peanut gallery. Talk about not caring about the truth! Disingenuous scaremongering. Either that, or he's absolutely rock-bottom fucking retarded. Zero respect. ~F. *** Say what you know, do what you must, come what may. - --[Sofia Kovalevskaya, motto on her paper "On the Problem of the Rotation of a Solid Body about a Fixed Point."] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Hush 2.0 wl8EARECAB8FAjvDaw4YHGF1dG8zMDEwOTRAaHVzaG1haWwuY29tAAoJEKadvsVlUK4P hm4An3lKj7Pgrs/T7OkK279LZbll4njqAJ9WVekquo39SUn1WeLQ/kDDNzrJTA== =oJ4s -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----