Ask George Smith e-mail: webmaster at dick destiny
Smiling Mike McConnell, one of the most famous salesmen-in-chiefs of the cult of cyberwar. Committed to hiring computer security specialists from the clutches of the government then leasing them back at premium rates for the benefit of Booz Allen business. From today’s news, Mike McConnell of Booz Allen’s cybersecurity sales unit, again making a putsch/pitch […]
Research into basic science and the American military don’t mix. That’s because our generals and admirals aren’t known for their zeal over it. Unless it promises the magical. (There is, for instance, this magical prediction that the jet fuel problem had been solved. We will make it from water!) So they are rubes for private […]
Permalink Comments off
Authors Bill Blunden and Violet Cheung have produced something of a first, a comprehensive book on cyberwar that isn’t like the rest. Behold a Pale Farce’s (TrineDay, trade paperback) strength is reality, a feature that makes it entirely unique in its field. Readers of this blog know the topic of cyberwar reasonably well. The national […]
Someone had to pay for Edward Snowden and it damn well isn’t going to be Keith or Mike McConnell of Booz Allen: The director of the N.S.A., Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is retiring next month after serving far longer than his predecessors. The director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., who has also been […]
Permalink Comments off
PBS rebroadcast a cyberwar bit from October recently. Google News displayed it prominently for a couple days. And that makes it worth commenting on again in its completely tone-deaf qualities, a brief piece trying to sell the ideas that hacker culture is still new, that hacker misuse of technology can be turned into offensive cyberwar […]
Permalink Comments off
I’m going to repeat myself in re-use of this from a few months back because there’s really no better way to say it: The US acts as if it is the exceptional nation in cyberspace. It reserves the right to criticize and lecture others on what constitutes proper conduct but reserves the right to do […]
The trial of accused ricin mailer Matthew Buquet has been pushed off until next year. The reason? Because there is only one lab in the country that does the forensic ricin determinations needed in the case, according to the judge. But is this really true? It’s an interesting story. From the wire: The federal trial […]
Since Roscoe Bartlett was run out of Congress leaving the cause of electromagnetic pulse doom-stopping in the hands of legitimate rape caucus member Trent Franks of Arizona, the old Cult of EMP Crazy has been gravely damaged. But like the twin phenomena of zombie dramatic cable television and movies, it always staggers forward, always has […]
From the wire: The source of the intelligence leaks that revealed the National Security Agency’s massive domestic surveillance program last week was identified on Sunday by the Guardian as Edward Snowden, a soft-spoken 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of NSA defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton … “I don’t want to […]
Permalink Comments off
The inestimably lousy Morning Call newspaper has seen fit to put all my old writings on-line. When I wrote for it I developed an entertainment feature called Nightclubbing, mentioned yesterday. I changed the entire tone of entertainment coverage, employing a slightly gonzo style that relied heavily on the absurd and proper use of superciliousness. The […]