Inspired by Rob Rosenberger's pizza party in 2002.1
Unlike nuclear weapon technology or biological weapon technology, there is no command and control over computer virus technology in the United States. To prove this statement, Rosenberger described how anti-virus companies routinely transfer virus technology to China's government so they are permitted to sell anti-virus software there.2
Because prominent members of America's security community claim China is a threat, this begs the obvious question: If China is such a powerful enemy of the United States, why are American companies allowed to transfer dangerous technology there?
To further prove this point, Rosenberger picked a country out of a hat and offered someone there a sample of virus technology. He ended up drawing Italy.
The list of countries is absurd in its own right, however, including such nations as Ireland, Canada and Australia. It makes you wonder, what makes a cyber-enemy? According to many prominent national security community members, such as Richard Clarke, Tom Ridge and Michael Vatis, along with American congresspeople such as Senator Charles Schumer (D. NY) and Rep. Curt Weldon (R. PA), these criteria make a cyber-enemy:
- Some kind of "cyber-attack" has originated from the country in question, or
- the country in question harbors a person or corporation that engaged in a "cyber-attack", or
- a prominent member of America's national security community has identified the country, a citizen or corporation of that country as capable of a "cyber-attack" on America, or
- An American citizen or corporation has already "cyber-attacked" the country, one of its citizens or corporations.
NOTE: As pointed out in the criteria, there is no distinction between acts by individuals within a country and acts sponsored by a country's government. The fearmongers don't bother making a distinction, so this writeup doesn't, either. Besides, the lack of distinction just adds to the absurdity.
Each country has a matching footnote referring to a web site or another publication fulfilling the criteria. If you have an entry you would like to add to the list, please /msg me.
- http://www.vmyths.com/rant.cfm?id=504&page=4
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/03/chinese_feds_demand_computer_virus/ - Thomas C Greene quotes The Wall Street Journal here
Would you engage in e-commerce with these countries?
- Afghanistan: "The military is gearing up to fight with computers and code." - Jim Wolf
- Armenia and Azerbaijan: "...have been engaged in an 'infowar' (since 1999)" - Richard Rogers
- Australia: United States Army "allegedly" attacked the Australian Stock Exchange computers
- Bosnia: "You could argue that the Bosnia conflict was the first 'Web war.'"
- Bulgaria: mi2g traced "clock-forwarding" virus to Bulgaria in 1999
- Canada: Harbours Mafiaboy and the author of Randex, and disallows printing their real names in Canadian press
- China: "Hacktivism" during US Spy Plane Standoff, among other cyber-atrocities
- Columbia: "Nearly all major terrorist organizations have a website, including the Shining Path, HAMAS, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC)..."
- Cuba: "...the main concern at this moment, in my opinion, are viruses and related threats. For which Cuba has been getting ready since 1991..."
- Germany: Hackers in the employ of the KGB, and that's just the tip of the iceberg
- ("All of the countries that begin with the letter 'I' are going to cyber-attack the USA" - Michael Vatis of (then) FBI NIPC):
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland (Rosenberger's younger sister married into an Irish family, apparently)
Israel
Italy
- North Korea: Technically still at war with the USA, plus South Korea fears "one hundred hackers" from Pyongyang (Or is that "five hundred?" "six hundred?" One never can tell with bizarre press releases.)
- South Korea: Attacked 2002 Winter Olympics web site: "All the referees are servants of the U.S."
- Lebanon: "Western governments and businesses should brace themselves for 'suicide cyber attacks'... (One pro-Al Qaeda hacker) defined a 'suicide cyber attack' as one in which the hacker sets out to cause maximum damage unhindered by any regard for being detected and caught." - Giles Trendle
- Libya: Forced off net by IANA
- Palestine: mi2g trumps the press again: "Israeli Web sites with the '.il' domain were defaced 413 times in 2001"
- Serbia (Then Yugoslavia): "NATO's Web site is under deliberate electronic 'bombardment' from Yugoslavia that has made e-mail service and access to the site 'erratic'" - NATO spokesman Jamie Shea
- Taiwan: "threatens China with 1,000 computer viruses"
- Yemen: "Yemen wants to speckle our teeth," extrapolated from threats of attack on SCADA control systems used to control water supplies, where the worst that could be done is over-flouridating the water causing flouridosis
- http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/01nov10/inter.htm#2
- http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_9/rogers/index.html
- http://slashdot.org/articles/99/10/03/2136215.shtml
- "Special Report: Bosnia,"
FetishFederal Computer Week, April 29, 1996
- http://211.119.133.170/crlist/biz/2/8/bizW482.html (Yahoo Korea)
- http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-520033.html (Mafiaboy), http://www.bizreport.com/news/7302/ (Randex author) http://vmyths.com/rant.cfm?id=651&page=4 (Canada Youth Criminal Justice Act)
- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,43134,00.html - Ironic given that anti-virus firms routinely deal with China's government, huh?
- http://www.homelandsecurity.gwu.edu/dhs/pubs/cilluffo_cyberthreats2000.html
- http://www.autentico.org/oa09571.php - a "partially unclassified CIA document" was cited here
- The Hacker Crackdown: part 2, section 6
- http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54382,00.html
- http://www.gyre.org/news/related/Information+Warfare/North+Korea (one hundred) http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/048791.php (six hundred)
- http://www.mailutilities.com/news/archive/110/1785.html
- http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?articleid=3191 - a 'suicide cyber-attack?' Who writes this stuff?
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/13/libya_falls_off_net/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/04/17/middle_east_conflict_spills_over/
- http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/31/nato.hack/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/01/11/taiwan_aims_1000_viruses/ - Given that US anti-virus firms give virus technology to China, does this make Taiwan a cyber-friend of the USA or a cyber-enemy?
- http://vmyths.com/rant.cfm?id=451&page=4 - OK, Yemen was a bit of a stretch