Fidel: hacker

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Feb 9 07:32:59 PST 2001


[via Declan McCullagh]

<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41700,00.html>

Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat

by Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)

2:00 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PST

WASHINGTON -- These must be jittery times for anyone in the military

who uses the Internet.

Not only do they have to guard against Love Bug worms and security

holes in Microsoft Outlook -- now they've got to worry about Fidel

Castro hacking into their computers.

Admiral Tom Wilson, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says the

74-year-old communist dictator may be preparing a cyberattack against

the United States.

Wilson told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a public hearing

Wednesday that Castro's armed forces could initiate an "information

warfare or computer network attack" that could "disrupt our military."

The panel later went into closed session to discuss classified

material.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked in response: "And you would say that

there is a real threat that they might go that route?"

Replied Wilson: "There's certainly the potential for them to employ

those kind of tactics against our modern and superior military."

He said that Cuba's conventional military might was lacking, but its

intelligence operations were substantial.

The partly classified hearing is an annual event -- and an important

one: It represents this year's World Threat Assessment discussion.

That's a chance for the intelligence committee to set its agenda for

this session of Congress and hear from senior intelligence officials

about the latest national security threats.

In addition to the aging president of Cuba, witnesses and senators

both cited encryption as another technology-related threat during a

far-ranging discussion that also encompassed nuclear, biological and

chemical weapons.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the committee's hawkish chairman, said

that the classified hearing later in the day would "explore the

challenges posed by, among others, the proliferation of encryption

technology, the increasing sophistication of denial and deception

techniques, the need to modernize and to recapitalize the National

Security Agency, and other shortfalls in intelligence funding."

[...]



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