5 ms·

Lay your own cables. Really.

by venomsnake 10y ago

witty_username 10y ago
That only adds a small amount of physical security. Much more security can be achieved by using cryptography.
- gaius 10y ago
  Except when it doesn't and hackers waltz in - anything connected is vulnerable .
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    A large network by definition cannot be air gapped. I'm sure if you are able to design a network spanning the continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, US Territories, US bases around the globe, allowing both military personnel, civilian workers, contractors and suppliers to securely connect to it while being both economical on any order of magnitude close to the current cost and being effectively "air gapped" and secure the pentagon would award you a contract to build it in a heartbeat. Until then let's all stop being literally arm chair generals and assume that while it surely has allot of room for improvement someone at the pentagon might just know what they are doing and they are doing the best as they can or fairly close to it considering all the constraints they have to operate against.
  - witty_username 10y ago
    It's far easier to just tap the cables than break TLS. How many times has TLS been broken?
dogma1138 10y ago
It's not that simple, and are you going to lay your cables to every contractor and supplier? many of which can be fairly small niche businesses? Military networks are fairly secured, while the article does bring a few interesting anecdotes it's quite hyperbolic. Also I would like to point out that every big hack today, especially those from state actors used fairly common and even "outdated" attacks and vulnerabilities, they were masterfully executed but it's not like they used some super new exploits and attack vectors that no one heard of before. Military doctrines take time to develop, even in "cyber warfare", military computer systems also don't tend to be the latest and greatest as far as hardware and software goes but they are often reliable. Building defenses around what you know and what your attackers are able to do is a good strategy, knowing when and what to airgap and what to protect is also critical because not every military network is secret nor critical. You focus your resources on an effective strategy the 80–20 rule applies even to military and defense networks.

Lay your own cables. Really.

witty_username 10y ago

That only adds a small amount of physical security. Much more security can be achieved by using cryptography.

gaius 10y ago
Except when it doesn't and hackers waltz in - anything connected is vulnerable .
- dogma1138 10y ago
  A large network by definition cannot be air gapped. I'm sure if you are able to design a network spanning the continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, US Territories, US bases around the globe, allowing both military personnel, civilian workers, contractors and suppliers to securely connect to it while being both economical on any order of magnitude close to the current cost and being effectively "air gapped" and secure the pentagon would award you a contract to build it in a heartbeat. Until then let's all stop being literally arm chair generals and assume that while it surely has allot of room for improvement someone at the pentagon might just know what they are doing and they are doing the best as they can or fairly close to it considering all the constraints they have to operate against.
- witty_username 10y ago
  It's far easier to just tap the cables than break TLS. How many times has TLS been broken?

dogma1138 10y ago

It's not that simple, and are you going to lay your cables to every contractor and supplier? many of which can be fairly small niche businesses? Military networks are fairly secured, while the article does bring a few interesting anecdotes it's quite hyperbolic. Also I would like to point out that every big hack today, especially those from state actors used fairly common and even "outdated" attacks and vulnerabilities, they were masterfully executed but it's not like they used some super new exploits and attack vectors that no one heard of before. Military doctrines take time to develop, even in "cyber warfare", military computer systems also don't tend to be the latest and greatest as far as hardware and software goes but they are often reliable. Building defenses around what you know and what your attackers are able to do is a good strategy, knowing when and what to airgap and what to protect is also critical because not every military network is secret nor critical. You focus your resources on an effective strategy the 80–20 rule applies even to military and defense networks.