Bart, An et al asks: How cyber ops physically take place, the architecture and engineering of the cyber architecture Snowden alludes to. Computers and networks are small pieces compared to where they housed, bunkered, trenched, drowned, aired, emitted, lofted, arrayed, hidden. Those structures of the infrastructure are as costly as the human power and much greater in scope and necessity -- and immensely targetable thanks to ostentatious appurtenances of antennas, fences, barriers, sensors, stand-offs, chopper pads, cafes, health and environmental inspections, power lines and sub-stations, and not least loose lips of contractors and disaffected employees. We know the location of some of the principal offices and HQs, but those are misleading icons, as much ruses as as leaked budget tables, congrats for those teasing leads BTW. Specifics may be withheld to "protect operations and lives" but that also leaves out how these systems function beyond stupidly idiotic slides and dissimulative photoshops, which may thrill and placate with top classification markings governmental overseers reading public but are ridiculously simple-minded to techies who are obliged to seance dot connections of mouse to LAN to WAN to Internet to hubs to hotels to White House to SE-WE-ME. Care to share those kind docs we architects can de-blueprint for you? At 08:23 PM 9/2/2013, you wrote:

Greg, et al -- I'm going to keep digging on US cyber operations, and particularly on "computer network exploitation" and "computer network attack." I'd be interested in theories, questions or suggestions from the smart folks here as I think about my reporting strategy. --Bart

----------------- Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:44:04 -0500 From: Gregory Foster <gfoster@entersection.org> Subject: WaPo releases details on US offensive cyber-ops

Washington Post (Aug 30) - "U.S. spy agencies mounted 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, documents show" by @BartonGellman & @nakashimae: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounte...

...

under an extensive effort code-named GENIE, U.S. computer specialists break into foreign networks so that they can be put under surreptitious U.S. control. Budget documents say the $652 million project has placed ?covert implants,? sophisticated malware transmitted from far away, in computers, routers and firewalls on tens of thousands of machines every year, with plans to expand those numbers into the millions.