Pentagon warns Fidel Castro could launch cyberattack against U.S.

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

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" <declan at well.com>
To: <cypherpunks at cyberpass.net>; <fight-censorship at vorlon.mit.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2001 9:38 AM
Subject: Pentagon warns Fidel Castro could launch cyberattack against U.S.


> ----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com> -----
> 
> *********
> 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 at 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 -----
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