NSA Wages Cyberwar Against US Armed Forces Teams 219
Hugh Pickens writes "A team of Army cadets spent four days at West Point last week struggling around the clock to keep a computer network operating while hackers from the National Security Agency tried to infiltrate it with methods that an enemy might use. The NSA made the cadets' task more difficult by planting viruses on some of the equipment, just as real-world hackers have done on millions of computers around the world. The competition was a final exam for computer science and information technology majors, who competed against teams from the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine as well as the Naval Postgraduate Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Ideally, the teams would be allowed to attack other schools' networks while also defending their own but only the NSA, with its arsenal of waivers, loopholes, and special authorizations is allowed to take down a US network. NSA tailored its attacks to be just 'a little too hard for the strongest undergraduate team to deal with, so that we could distinguish the strongest teams from the weaker ones.' The winning West Point team used Linux, instead of relying on proprietary products from big-name companies like Microsoft or Sun Microsystems."
Finally! 2009... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Linux (Score:3, Funny)
Anyone surprised by the OS choice of the winner?
No. The NSA doesn't run Linux so they don't know how to attack it. You have to log in with that text thingy and then type some stuff to get it to do what you want. The other kind of OS with the pictures of things works much better. You can point at the pictures and click them and it does what you want. If no one at the NSA runs Linux, how do you expect them to write a virus for it? It's obvious why it won because it is an underrepresented OS that no one uses anyway.
Re:Modern day Kobayashi Maru... (Score:5, Funny)
This appears like a modern day Kobayashi Maru exercise. And instead of it being designed and executed by a single Vulcan whom we all know, it was done by the best and brightest of our 'No Such Agency'. I say congratulations to both parties, the NSA and the winning West Point Team.
Man, do I ever long for the good old days of the Victorian era Kobayashi Maru.
Re:Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OpenBSD? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes I understand this doesn't take into consideration social networking.
Exactly. OpenBSD lacks the kind of application client support for Facebook and Twitter that the NSA has come to expect.
Re:NCCDC (Score:3, Funny)
The NSA has a much bigger toolbox than we give them credit for.
No, we don't. I work for the NSA, and I promise, you've seen it all. Move along here, nothing else to see. These aren't the droids you're looking for...
Re:The sad truth... (Score:3, Funny)
Sure I can. All I have to do is pull out this little cable right here an
Re:NCCDC (Score:3, Funny)
Except as the story says this wasn't even the worse they could do. They tamed down their attacks to the level of the undergraduates.
Exactly. Which is why Linux and Open Source won.
You see, it's true that Open Source is superior and more potent at staving off cyber attacks than Closed Source. However, to defeat the next level of tests you need Secret Reverse Unclosed Source (of Ineffable Primes, +3). However the big boys aren't exactly going to be giving that away, what with it defeating the purpose and all. So far though Open Source is the best we mortals have managed. Maybe through meditation and large amounts of coffee we will be enlightened.
A couple things I have been able to glean, though: The Ultimate OS ends with a 'z', and penguins are important.
Re:NCCDC (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The sad truth... (Score:4, Funny)
Sure I can. All I have to do is pull out this little cable right here an
--
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Never have I seen comment and sig in such harmony.