Technology Archive

The U.S. Cyber-Consequences Unit has recently issued a report documenting how Russia supplemented its conventional war against Georgia last August with a massive, well-integrated and pre-planned information warfare campaign against Georgia’s Internet structure. The techniques were so successful that the unit has restricted distribution of the full report to U.S. government and certain other Internet security professionals. Only the executive summary (pdf) has been made available to the public. The U.S. Cyber-Consequences Unit is independent, non-profit research institute affiliated with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. The report’s main author, John Bumgarner, directs research at the […]

For a variety of reasons, over the last several months the issue of cyber security has been prominently covered in the U.S. news media. But for more than a decade, the vulnerability of networked computer systems has been considered by policymakers, with worst-case scenarios running from “Electronic Pearl Harbor” to the more recent rhetorical refresh of “Cyber Katrina.” The Obama Administration and a number of congressional leaders have made preliminary moves to craft a strategy for defending the country’s computer networks, but policymaking interest may outpace technical reality. As a nation, we want to be prepared for cyberwar, but we […]