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DVD Porn Viruses Ravage US Soldiers' Computers
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon May 12, 2008 07:48 AM
from the oh-the-humanity dept.
from the oh-the-humanity dept.
stevegee58 writes "Tom Ricks' Inbox in the Sunday Washington Post reported that bootleg DVDs purchased in Iraqi markets ('souks') are frequently infected with viruses. Iraqi soldiers were affected as well; electronic interaction between Iraqi and US soldiers frequently resulted in a corresponding exchange of viruses from these infected DVDs."
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Interviews: Ask Lt. Col. John Bircher About Cyber Warfare Concepts 236 comments
The Air Force is not the only U.S. military branch trying to come to grips with the electronic side of warfare, both current and future. The U.S. Army Computer Network Operations (CNO)-Electronic Warfare (EW) Proponent (USACEWP), located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas — home to the U.S. Army's Combined Arms Center — serves as the Army's hub for cyber-electronic concepts and capabilities. This is the organization responsible for developing doctrine, materiel and training to prepare the Army for cyber-electronic engagements. For example, USACEWP has developed training teams to ensure that U.S. commanders and soldiers around the world are fully informed of cyber-electronic capabilities at their disposal. Leading the Proponent's Futures branch is Lt. Col John "Chip" Bircher; Bircher entered the Army in 1989 as an Infantry officer, then served in various command and staff positions, most recently Information Operations (IO). He was the IO Chief for the 25th Infantry Division (Light), Hawaii, and Director of IO for Combined Joint Task Force -76, Bagram, Afghanistan. If you want to know more about the realities and challenges that face an armed, global IT department in a time when electronic warfare is ever more important and dangerous, now's your chance to ask Lt. Col. Bircher some questions. We'll pass on the highest-moderated questions for Lt. Col. Bircher to answer. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply.
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Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
But seriously, what is the world coming to?
Previously, at least soldiers could count on running around, meeting interesting people, shooting them and raping their women.
Of course, often that also meant some kind of medical treatment afterwards, usually including some nasty shots of penicillin, but that was a small price to pay for the vast spread of one's genetic material.
Nowadays, the only virus you can get as a soldier infects your computer while you jack off to porn?
Really, they shouldn't have gone all the way to Iraq for that.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Moderators w/o a Sense of Humor (Score:5, Funny)
No, no, you got the joke all wrong! You used an article where you should have used a possessive pronoun.
I have mod points, but I'm not touching this thread with my ten foot pole.
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Re:Moderators w/o a Sense of Humor (Score:5, Funny)
No, no, you got the joke all wrong! You used an article where you should have used a possessive pronoun.
I have mod points, but I'm not touching this thread with my ten foot pole.
I wouldn't touch it with yours, either.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
Not everyone that goes into the military is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal, and quite a few of us are above average in terms of intelligence. I spent 6 years in the Navy, and I (nor anyone I knew) didn't shoot, rape OR pillage anyone.
On a site like this one, where people from the outside would presume everyone is a pasty and pimply 34 year old living in their parent's basement, I really would expect (just a little) a little more tolerance and less assumption from the people involved.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
FWIW, the part that offended you was mostly a joke.
Now you just flatter me. I didn't even mention many things that would offend a much greater number of people, but which would not be funny in the least.
I know quite a number of people of various IQ levels who've been to war. IQ and the ability to commit a war crime are not that related that I'd consider that comment as any kind of explanation.
And their war was much closer to home than yours.
Yeah, I've heard quite a lot about seamen.
Sorry, but you really walked into that one. ;)
Don't take it all so seriously; beneath the irritating tone of my post there is some relatively sound biology.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as tolerance is concerned, I'm glad that all these marines appear to know absolutely nothing about keeping their machines clean. It keeps me in a paycheck. However, I don't have much tolerance for people who insist that this might be an overblown story. As far as the Parent comment about rape and pillaging... our armed forces have changed radically since the Vietnam days. You can't necessarily blame the guy for his comment though. If what I'm cleaning off these machines is any indication... even if our armed forces aren't raping and pillaging, they sure are thinking of it. Where they are going on the web to screw up their machines like they are points to that conclusion.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, first of all, you only get to abhor the war as much when you've actually participated in one. Or four.
Furthermore, some people join up in order to finance their education, hoping to hell there would never be a war they would have to fight in.
Then again, as a Croatian citizen, I know fairly well what kind of people also joins the military and fights in wars.
You get all kinds, and thus all generalizations are false.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I not allowed to abhor natural disasters as I have not been in any?
If they are stupid enough to enlist just to finance, well they do not deserve my "tolerance".
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
I lived through a war.
However, I lived in the capital, which was only a target of several air raids.
Some of my friends survived regular bombings day after day, night after night; some of them had their parents and other relatives killed; some were re-settled or lived in camps.
Do you think my feelings about the war are as deep and as strong as theirs?
I'm pretty anti-war and anti-military myself, for various reasons, but I will never ever try to imagine I can feel as deeply about it as they do.
As for financing your education... people do what they can. Or what they have to. I refuse to judge their choices as long as they act humane.
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Re:How does it work? (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't an executable...just a bunch of vob files really isn't it? How does one get a virus by playing a simple DVD?
How did Sony's music CDs infect people's computers with the infamous rootkit?
Just because .vob files are not executable themselves, it doesn't mean that you can't include an autorun.inf that will wreak havoc on your Windows install.
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Re:How does it work? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but we geeks have had lots of practice doing things one-handed, with the other hand tied up with something else under the desk.
Really, it would almost be unfair advantage.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Interesting)
In Yugoslavia there used to be something called ORA(s), which is an acronym I can't readily translate, but which included very large groups of young people doing some pretty hard jobs for a period of time, e.g. (rail)roadbuilding.
This is a form of service I can subscribe to and would actually like to see re-instated in Croatia. For one, if high-school kids today just picked up the trash arund their schools and rebuilt the demolished bus stops, they would be less prone to littering and demolishing them all over again. IMO, of course.
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Re:Pacifism (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and a soldier is NOT like a policeman. Police exist to keep the peace by enforcing the laws, and provide assistance to citizens in need. In an ideal situation, police serve the public, though that isn't always true. But generally speaking, they serve the law, whatever the law might be. They are not trained to kill, and certainly not trained to survive. To claim that police and military are the same means you either have a warped sense of the place and purpose of soldiers, the place and purpose of law enforcement, or both.
Finally, stop being pedantic. Firearms are designed for maiming and killing, be it human or any other animal. GP is not talking about other "guns". Glue guns have the word "gun" in the name too, but I'm pretty sure when someone puts military and gun together, they don't think about a nozzle that ejects a hot, sticky substance. Have you any other uses for a firearm (not explosives or some other appratus that otherwise uses explosives to propelled projectiles) besides killing or maiming? And don't tell me target practice.
Seesh...I don't know if it's Monday or what, but the mods need to get their shit together.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, no, you would not.
You would merely have to know enough history to know that the modus operandi described in my post has been characteristic for invading armies since the invention of armies.
Then you would have to notice that I actually implied that American soldiers were kind of wusses for not raping and pillaging, since all they really do is jack off to porn.
The rest of your post I would rather not comment on in great detail; let it suffice to say that the rest of the world has a bit different view of your army. And of your country.
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Re:OT: What is this world coming to? (Score:5, Funny)
You have no idea. I mod up everything that has to do with Ballmer throwing chairs, Gotse, ?? Profit, and FIRST POST, while making sure to mod down anything with substance. I considered, albeit briefly, modding with dignity, but then I saw that 7 digit number and realized.. neh, screw it.
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sexually Transmitted Disease (Score:5, Funny)
With Norton, you'll still get infected, but the system will slow down just enough that a DVD movie becomes a slideshow.
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Rootkits (Score:5, Funny)
Are these the old Sony disks they're talking about?
Not worth it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not worth it (Score:5, Funny)
Iraqi Man 1: Would you get a load of the slit in her burka! I think I saw an eye!
Iraqi Man 2: Oh yeah, baby, put it on! More burka!
Iraqi Man 3: Halalalalalalalala...BOOM!
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Support Our troops (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Funny)
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Don't they have Internet connections over there? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Insightful)
That being said, I've seen more pr0n on classified servers than I've seen in the rest of my previous life. We had to remove about 3 or 4 TB off of one server so the map server could run properly. That and it was slowing down Call of Duty. Mind you, it wasn't all of it, just a couple of TB.
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Funny)
I can see it now: "Support the troops, send them quality American porn!"
There could be shots of porn stars dressed like 1940's pinup stars in the ads for the charity.
The name might be tough though... "Skin for the Soldiers", "Tits for the Troops"? I'm sure we could come up with something interesting.
Anyone here have contacts at Vivid Entertainment? Let's get this baby rolling!
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Support Our troops (Score:5, Funny)
Mental Image You Didn't Need For Today: A bunch of Privates standing around in a circle-jerk, with their Sargent calling out a cadence.
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Protection (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Protection (Score:5, Interesting)
Talk about National Security
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Summary full of WIN (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, a porn virus that can make the jump from DVD to human?
Good old days! (Score:5, Interesting)
Tha bad part about the bootlegs from town was the fact that they were analog - the quality left much to be desired. Some had skips that came from the LPs they were recorded from.
The good part about the bootlegs from town was the fact that they were analog - you weren't going to infect your cassette player with XCP or some other virus.
-mcgrew
Wowzers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, I do realize that these computers operate on separate networks, but traveling disks that are frequently infected presents an issue. Or, put another way, a tempting target for foreign intelligence.
And before you jump to the 'impossible' conclusion, consider this: What are those Iraqi officers trading with our soldiers by thumb drive? Is it ALL unsec material? NONE of it is of ANY operational importance? Really? Really, really?
That strains disbelief...
And consider this: If the portable drives were intentionally infected by a custom virus designed by, oh say, a super power, would the sec networks have a chance to detect it?
My network would not. I'm certain of that. And I'm also fairly certain that I have far less BillyWare than they do in their deployment.
Imaginative approach (Score:5, Funny)
Misleading title (Score:5, Informative)
Here is what you CAN find in the markets (even on base): Fake cigarettes, fake cigars, fake Rolexes, fake Nikes, fake anything. Imitation Apple products- headphones, iPod cases, even fake iPods. No fake zunes, though...
In an area about the size of a high school gymnasium, about 80% of the space was filled with bootleg DVDs and software. I don't mean bootleg like the MPAA wants you think bootleg; I mean actual printed DVDs out of japan or taiwan. Some were really crappy theater-cams but many were very good copies of promos and the like. I watch 300, letters from Iwo Jima, Black Snake Moan, and many others before or very shortly after theater release. It was awesome
I also got all ten (at the time) seasons of south park on 4 DVDs for $25. Sweet.
So, here we have this article that, while it may be true, seems to completely miss the point. It's like saying that, "Magazines such as hustler are causing massive deforestation and are filling our landfills." It is just trying to sensationalize the situation. Which is weird, since there are so many other, BIGGER things out there to write about. Try this, RIAA: The base media server, loaded with ~180 GB of music, is free to anyone who wants to download from it. You can get 180 GB hdds at the BX. Oh and there is the movie server, loaded with hundreds of titles. All free for the taking. And this author chose to write about porn? Whatever. Iraq is the wild, wild middle east. Everything goes.
-b
Patton Meets Pr0N (Score:5, Funny)
More than an inconvenience (Score:5, Interesting)
So the R&D chief goes on a rant (to me, in private): "We've tried sending PCs into deployment, and they come back filthy with 'family videos' and viruses. We try sealing up and enclosing the USB/FW ports and DVD slots, and they come back pried open. No computers."
Customer (to me, during requirements review): "The soldiers get issued WinXP notebooks anyhow. Utilize them."
So I was handed the task of managing the resolution to this showdown. My first thought was, "Porn is not my problem." Second thought, "Hell, give them some clean porn ferchrissakes." Third thought, "oh crap -- we can't certify our product if it is a) in the decision making loop for a certain class of UAV, and b) can run any old crapware, including family videos."
So it's not just a porn problem, but a problem with the inadequacy of the Windows OS itself. I know that this is potential flamebait moderation material, but it's a major thorn in our side: it's not a realtime OS, and even the embedded version of XP isn' real time. And it's susceptibility to viruses and hackers really makes it unsuitable for much more than family photos, letters to Jane, and facebook.
Solution: Give them what they want, on their dime, while spending R&D money to prototype what they need. (Sorry - can't describe it.) Then when the inadequacies become painfully apparent, offer them the alternative, ready for development testing.
Media should be passively displayed, not executed (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no good reason why an email program should willy-nilly try to execute any attachment it sees, and no good reason why a computer should execute stuff on a DVD.
99.99% of the time, the end-user thinks of a
An unholy alliance between technical sweetness (oooh, generality), possibilities for commercial exploitation (this DVD could display ads with a "buy" button on them), and DRM, has created a terrible situation.
The mischief comes in when there are so many parties that have an interest in creating media that are not what they appear to be to the end-user.
When the end-user thinks he's just watching something, the system should enforce the will of the user... not the will of the media provider. If the media does what the vendor wants and not what the user wants, that's a bad capability in itself--but it also is a gaping whole for malware which can subvert that capability to purposes neither user nor vendor want.
Re:How? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it's a ridiculously insecure idea, most people wouldn't even have considered the possibility of automatically executing programs on inserted media, but microsoft did for some reason.
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Re:Is nothing sacred?! (Score:5, Funny)
I support the troops sooooo much that i don't qualify for a troop support rebate check
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Re:Porn isn't allowed in Iraq (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:You get what you pay for (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is the soldiers have their personal laptops on unsecured wireless networks they pay for from local providers so they can do what they *WANT* to do, which is surf porn, play MMORPGS (WoW is hugely popular) and other games that allow them to interact with "normal" people from back home. As is usually the case, the pure security concept pushes people to their own solutions which creates huge security issues. You're talking about brave, courageous, amazingly talented strong young men and women who are amazingly stupid about technology. They use Windows because everyone uses it and the guy down the way can help them load their Iraqi porn.
The only way to address this is to accept their habits (porn, games) and address it in a secure way.
In this Army/Navy/AF/etc, that ain't gonna happen.
Let's just say that I may be employed at (but not by) a US Government organization but I use my personal Mac and a personal wireless solution where neither the Mac nor the wireless ever touches their network, just so that I can do simple stuff like research current technology. Happens that some of this research tends to be on sites they consider "gaming" or "non business related" so they filter it. GFY, censors.
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