[iwar] Code safety and iwar success

From: Charles Preston (cpreston@sinbad.net)
Date: 2002-06-27 09:29:41


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Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:29:41 -0800
Subject: [iwar] Code safety and iwar success
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I'm not suggesting that all Russian programmers are untrustworthy in any way.
But considering several trends and news articles together, where is this 
leading?

1. U.S. companies, including Microsoft, are employing thousands of Russian 
programmers.  Many Russian programmers are said to have had experience in 
Russian defense industries, so must be considered trustworthy by elements 
of the Russian government.

-----------------
http://www.outsourcing-russia.com/OS2002/indiacopy.html

In fact, a dozen well-known multinational technology companies including 
Motorola, LG, Samsung, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Boeing have 
already opened their own software development centers in major Russian 
cities, where several thousand certified Russian programmers are already 
employed. Most of the companies have also begun developing special 
university curricula and provide internship programs for hundreds of 
first-year undergraduates.
-----------------

2. Microsoft software is heavily used by the U.S. Government, including by 
the military, while Microsoft states that their closed-source products are 
more secure than open-source.

3. If a lot of code has a half-life of about 3 years, it will be close to 
six years before any prohibitions on Russian coders will nullify most 
potential vulnerabilities from that source.  That's about the time it took 
in the past for a much less complex code base to be thoroughly examined to 
qualify for a security-approved list.

4. USSR intelligence was sophisticated enough in past years to score 
important victories, many with long-term or strategic implications, and 
intelligence and deception planning has been a carefully-considered part of 
Russian military planning since at least World War II.

5.  There is no requirement for a direct military conflict between the U.S. 
and Russia in order for the U.S to get outbid as a potential ally, and for 
Russia to offer experienced technical assistance to state or non-state actors.

6.  Russia and the U.S. are two of the few nations believed to have 
significant iwar capabilities, but our respective iwar vulnerabilities are 
probably asymmetrical, with the U.S. being the most vulnerable.

-----------------
JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW - JULY 01, 2002


Russia's 'netwar' capabilities

Tim Thomas

...
Russia is particularly concerned with information weapons that disable
or change the algorithms driving control system software.  These weapons
include:

· means of disabling all or specific portions of software of an
information system, possibly at a given point in time or with the onset
of a certain event in the system;

· means of covertly changing (even partially) the algorithm of a piece
of functioning software;

· means of collecting data circulating in the enemy information system;

· means of delivery and introduction of specific algorithms to a
specific place in an information system; ...
-----------------

cmp





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