From: iw@all.net
Subject: IW Mailing List iw/960125
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Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 21:38:05 -0500
From: winn@Infowar.Com
Subject: Golf Balls

From what I have been taught from the best satellite imaging folks,
(yes, they are commercial) the theoretical limit for optical satellite
imaging is 15 centimeters, or about 6 inches. 

[Moderator's Note: This seems highly unlikely.  What is the theoretical
basis for believing that you cannot get resolution down to twice the
wavelength of the light being measured? There is also no reason to limit
ourselves to visible light.]

The latest rounds of private sats going up are in the 2-3m range, with
plans for 1m cversions thereafter.  The US is supposed to have 1m
resolution now (shhhh, it's classified) and the Russians are supposed to
have 75cm. 

If you look at the 10m shots, they are miserable exceept for planning
towns.  ;-) The 3m ones bring things into focus and the 1m are
impessive.  I'd love to see the 15cm one - that's reading a license
plate fromspace. 

[I think (I'm not certain) 6-inch resolution is now available commercially.
Russian satellite recon is available on the open market for a standard fee.
They started selling it after the cold war ended.]
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From: fc (Fred Cohen)
Subject: C4I-Pro-Digest V2 #138 (fwd)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 07:36:29 -0500 (EST)

> From: VTPE95A@prodigy.com (MR HUGH V BLANCHARD)
> Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 19:08:47 EST
> Subject: Re: [C4I-Pro] Re: IM & C4I

> VTPE95A@prodigy.com (MR HUGH V BLANCHARD)
> Dear Robert,  Your comments about skill sets hit the nail on the head 
> regarding Information Operations. One of the insights now emerging 
> from the Army's Information Operations Assessment is that we very 
> much require a new Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) or at least 
> an Additional Skill Identifier (ASI) for our systems administrators.  
> As things now stand, getting a good system administrator is 
> serendipity:  as you correctly note, the majority of the systems 
> administrators are not formally qualified but rather use personal 
> initiative to obtain the skills they need to do the job. With the 
> impending organization of the force to execute Information Operations 
> and our own vulnerability to hostile Information Warfare, we 
> absolutely require special skills and not just the luck of the draw.

I would extend this to say that until systems administration becomes a
real profession and is treated as such by management, defensive IW (as
well as adequate information protection in general) will not happen.
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