Today I’m reprinting material from many years back, a piece I wrote for the Wall Street Journal, and a bit from Rob Slade’s old Springer-Verlag book on computer viruses.
This in an add-on to the Voice of America blog post on cyberwar and Iran falling prey to the now over twenty year old joke.
Indeed, the editors and reporter Doug Bernard at Voice of America could have avoided the entire thing.
In e-mail yesterday, one of the sources for the story — it’s not too hard to figure out who (look for the “cyber doom” quote) — remarked in e-mail he would have warned VOA’s journalist about it if it had been mentioned in interview — but it wasn’t.)
VOA News did not respond to two of my notifications to them on the matter.
The Gulf War virus hoax story remains relevant, even though I wish it didn’t, simply because the nature of it plays so well to mainstream discussions on cyberwar. Almost all these greatly rely on exaggeration, fantastic claims and the painting of apocalyptic scenarios which make the alleged discombobulation of an Iraqi air defense system in 1991 seem quaint.
Again, since the Gulf War virus hoax writings are now so old, you can’t find the originals on the web. (Well, you can find some material but it’s not at the fingertips.)
Reprints begin below.
Truth is the first casualty of cyberwar by George Smith, Wall Street Journal, September 8, 1998.
Reprinted with permission of The Wall Street Journal c 1998. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
Concern is growing in many quarters that society’s reliance on computers has made it extremely vulnerable to attack via keyboard. Journalist James Adams has written a new book, “The Next World War,” which claims that information warfare will be the battleground of the future. At the Pentagon, military theorists ponder how to defend America against hackers in the employ of a foreign power who might use the Internet to turn off the electricity, paralyze the armed forces, cause corporations to crumble and write dirty words on your Web site.
Before you run screaming from your computer and haul the old manual typewriter out of the closet, look closely at the source of these cyber-scares. It turns out that many of them are information-age ghost stories that get spookier with every telling.
Mr. Adams’s book passes along a couple of hoary tales. The first revolves around the idea that the National Security Agency developed a computer virus for use in the Gulf War. Supposedly secreted in the hardware of computer equipment destined for Iraq–printers, in the most popular variation–the virus was somehow designed to bushwhack Iraqi air defense computers hooked to the same network. This is implausible on its face: A printer has neither the hardware space nor the capability to spontaneously transmit programs, which is what computer viruses are, to other computers on a network.
The printer-virus story is very similar to an April Fool’s joke published in a 1991 issue of Infoworld magazine. The story was subsequently picked up in “Triumph Without Victory,” U.S. News & World Report’s book on the Gulf War. Many have fallen for it besides Mr. Adams. In 1997, a Hudson Institute researcher gave it credence in an analysis of “Russian Views on Electronic and Information Warfare.”
The second beguiling myth perpetuated by Mr. Adams and many others is that of the electromagnetic pulse gun. Since at least 1992, teenage hackers desperate for media attention have been spinning elaborate tales about this exotic weapon, usually said to be cobbled together out of a few hundred dollars worth of electronic trinkets, radio antennae, bailing wire and automobile batteries. This electronic rifle is allegedly capable of destroying computers by firing an assortment of electromagnetic waves. Mr. Adams reprints part of a 1996 interview in Forbes ASAP in which a hacker insists these are the “poor man’s nuke.” At a hackers’ convention in Las Vegas, one participant– appropriately named “Ph0n-E”–even showed off a bogus contraption that he claimed was a pulse gun.
Obviously, the genesis of this idea lies in a 1962 nuclear test whose electromagnetic pulses famously blocked radio communications. But no one has been able to overcome the basic physics problem of packing these pulses into a gun: Any such weapon would have an effective range of only a few feet while requiring a power supply so large it would severely burn, if not kill, whoever fired the weapon.
Indeed, no genuine pulse gun has ever been produced for examination. But that hasn’t stopped Congress’s Joint Economic Committee from holding two unintentionally amusing hearings, in June 1997 and February 1998, on the matter. Apocryphal claims have even spread that unnamed British financial institutions have had their computers electrocuted by such weapons.
Some other cyberwar myths making the rounds:
In 1997, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s commission on reducing government secrecy issued a report containing a chapter devoted to computer security. In a boxed-out quote, the commission uncritically reported: “One company whose officials met with the Commission warned its employees against reading an e-mail entitled Penpal. . . . Although the message appeared to be a friendly letter, it contained a virus that could infect the hard drive and destroy all data present.” Actually Penpal is a notorious Internet hoax. In this instance, the pranksters took in a commission whose members included former intelligence agency chiefs John Deutch and Martin Faga. The spring issue of the U.S. Army War College’s scholarly journal, Parameters, contained an article by Lt. Col. Timothy L. Thomas that soberly mentioned a computer virus called Russian Virus 666 allegedly capable of putting computer users into a trance in which they could be made to suffer from arrhythmia of the heart. The virus’s satanic name should have been a tip-off. Yet while no one would give credence to a military publication that wrote about, say, salvaging weapons technology from UFOs, readers seem to leave logic behind when the subject is computers. In the December 1996 issue of the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin, two academics, Andra Katz of Wichita State University and David Carter of Michigan State, discuss the “Clinton virus” which was “designed to infect programs, but . . . eradicates itself when it cannot decide which program to infect.” To the chagrin of the authors, the indecisive “Clinton virus” was revealed to be another Internet joke.
Oh well, look at the bright side: Cyberwar is cheap. Dueling jokes, myths and hoaxes cost almost nothing to produce and even less to spread.
Mr. Smith is the editor of The Crypt Newsletter, an Internet publication about computer crime and information warfare.
Computer security and virus expert Rob Slade also addressed the Gulf War virus hoax in his book, forthrightly entitled “Rob Slade’s Guide to Computer Viruses,” published by Springer in 1995.
In a section on virus myths:
In early 1992, there were reports of a virus that shut down Iraq’s air defense system during Desert Shield/Storm. This seems to have started in Triumph Without Victory … and the serialization of the book by US News and World Report. The articles were rerun in many papers … and the article on the virus that ran in my local paper is specifically credited to US News & World Report. The bare bones of the article are that a French printer was to be smuggled into Iraq through Jordan; that US agents intercepted the printer and replaced a microchip in the printer with one reprogrammed by the NSA; and that a virus on the reprogrammed chip invaded the air defense network to which the printer was connected and erased information on display screens when “windows” were opened for additional information on aircraft.
[Longer technical discussion omitted.]
There is … a much more telling piece of evidence supporting the mythical status of what became known as the Desert Storm virus. Infoworld (April 1991) carried an article reporting a computer virus that US authorities had used to shut down Iraqi computer systems. The Infoworld article, to careful readers, an obvious April Fool’s joke (supported by the name of the virus, AF/91). The article ended with the warning that the virus was out of control and was now spreading through system in the Western world. It was a spoof of the new Windows 3 program, the popularity of which was startling industry analysts.
Although the Triumph Without Victory story was confirmed by sources in the Pentagon, the similarities to the Infoworld AF/91 prank article are simply too great. This is obviously a case of official “sources” taking their own information from gossip that had mutated from reports of the joke …
One of the other rules of thumb in thinking critically on these matters: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, not just someone’s say so.
An Indonesian man accused of plotting to poison police officers by tainting bottles of mineral water with the deadly toxin ricin faces seven years in jail, Central Jakarta District Court prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
Ali Miftah, and six other suspects, allegedly planned to ship the poisoned water bottles to police headquarters in Jakarta, Central Java, East Java and Central Sulawesi. The water was reportedly laced with ricin, a fatal toxin produced by the castor oil plant, prosecutors said.
“He was involved in an evil conspiracy,” prosecutor Ricky Rommy said. “[He attempted] to help or commit a premeditated act of terrorism.”
Ali was also charged with attempting to hide alleged Bali bomber Umar Patek …
The man’s associates, alleged mastermind Santhanam, chemist Paimin, Jumarto and Martoyo, all face six years in prison. Two other men reportedly involved in the plot, Umar and Budi Supriadi each face five years.
The group was not connected with any of Indonesia’s known terrorist organizations, according to prior reports.
Voice of America has opened up a new blog called Digital Frontiers.
Reads the banner: “This is the first of a series of Digital Frontiers features, exploring how international tensions translate to the online world.”
That’s nice.
VOA journalist Doug Bernard, writing from Washington, DC, in the first post from Digital Frontiers, leads with:
On January 17th, 1991, as the 34-nation coalition of Operation Desert Storm prepared for its first aerial bombardment of targets in Iraq, the U.S. military sprung a surprise.
Iraqi radar screens suddenly blinked and went dark, momentarily blinding Saddam Hussein’s military. The “Kari??? radar control system had been infected with a computer virus, planted and controlled by the Pentagon. “It was a French system,??? notes intelligence historian Matthew Aid of the Iraqi radar control. “They gave us the schematics and we found a way to insert some buggies into their system as the first wave of American bombers streaked toward Baghdad.???
It worked brilliantly. Iraq’s defenses were paralyzed, allied bombers faced no serious opposition, and the U.S. became the first-ever nation to launch a documented cyber-attack.
In a post entitled, “The Coming Cyberwar with Iran?” the piece goes on to muse about what is and what is not real about cyberwar.
Yes, there is some irony in the hard stone that the very first example of a real cyberattack used is a now notorious joke in computer security circles.
Did U.S. infowar commandos smuggle a deadly computer virus into Iraq inside a printer? Of course not. So why does it keep getting reported?
“ Many have been enthralled by the Gulf War virus’ siren call, almost all in efforts to hold up some proof of the magical power of information warfare. ???
A creepy enthusiasm for tales of weird weapons rises as war approaches … In this environment, where everyone charges full speed ahead for the hot scoop or astonishing apocrypha, even the oldest hoaxes can return for one more bow.
In a February piece for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a retired air force man mused on the subject of information warfare and how it might be used to strike Iraq down. Dabbling in a little history, the author recounted how in Gulf War I the U.S. drew up plans to take down an Iraqi anti-aircraft system with “specially designed computer viruses [to] infect the system from within. Agents inserted the virus in a printer shipped to an Iraqi air defense site.”
Special Forces men were also said to have infiltrated Iraq, where they dug up a fiber-optic cable and jammed a computer virus into it. “It remained dormant until the opening moments of the air war, when it went active…” wrote the columnist. Iraq’s air defense system was vanquished.
Frankly, this is a great story. It’s amusing to remember how it kicked up a storm in 1991 after its initial appearance as an April Fool’s joke in Infoworld magazine.
The gag asserted the National Security Agency had developed the computer virus to disable Iraqi air defense computers by eating windows — “gobbling them at the edges…” The virus, called AF/91, was smuggled into Iraq through Jordan, hidden in a chip in a printer — the latter being a distinguishing feature of many subsequent appearances of the hoax.
Chat board gossip on it echoed for days, not only from people who thought the joke quite funny, but also those who missed the original citation and engaged in laborious discussion on the imagined technology of the virus.
Inevitably, a large media organization got wind of the story and pounced without bothering to track down the tale’s provenance.
U.S. News & World Report published news of the Gulf War virus in its coverage of the war, a narrative that also found its way into “Triumph Without Victory,” the magazine’s subsequent book on Desert Storm.
The Gulf War virus, wrote U.S. News, attacked Saddam’s defenses by “devouring windows” Iraqi defenders used to check on aspects of their air defense system. “Each time a technician opened a window … the window would disappear and the information would vanish.” The virus was “smuggled to Baghdad through Amman, Jordan” in chips inside a printer.
From there, the bogus story was reported by the Associated Press, CNN, ABC Nightline, and newspapers across the country.
When queried about the tale’s uncanny resemblance to the Infoworld joke, Brian Duffy, the primary author of the U.S. News article (and now executive editor of the magazine) stubbornly defended his sources — “senior officials” all. In a follow-up Associated Press article outlining the imbroglio, Duffy maintained he had “no doubt” that U.S. intelligence agents had carried out the Gulf War virus attack, but admitted similarities to the Infoworld joke were “obviously troubling.” Duffy’s sources, were, of course, anonymous.
Many have been enthralled by the Gulf War virus’ siren call through the decade, almost all in efforts to hold up some proof of the magical power of information warfare.
In the March 1999 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine, in a piece on cyberwar, the publication wrote: “In the days following the Gulf War, stories circulated that [cyber] weapons had been unleashed on the Iraqi air defense system.” The nefarious printers were again used containing “chips [with] programs designed to infect and disrupt…”
A Hudson Institute analyst peddling a paper on Russian thoughts on cyberwar fell for it and when confronted aggressively argued that it was true because, well, just because. [As a result, she fell into disrepute and never published much again.]
Other appearances include an allegedly seminal book on computer combat entitled “The Next World War.” In this instance, the miraculous Gulf War virus failed to do its job because the U.S. Air Force accidentally bombed the building where Iraq stored the virus-laden printers. The author went on to found an infosecurity firm known for its publicity-happy hyperbolic proclamations on cyberwar. [The firm eventually declared bankruptcy.]
Why was the hoax so successful?
The easy answer is to simply call everyone who falls for the joke a momentary idiot. But the Gulf War virus plays to a uniquely American trait: a child-like belief in gadgets and technology and the people who make them as answers to everything. Secret National Security Agency computer scientists made viruses that hobbled Saddam’s anti-air defense without firing a shot! Or maybe it didn’t work but it sure was a good plan!
In this respect, the joke is ageless. People are just as able to nebulously theorize about the tech of it and its implications in 2003 as they were in 1991. Will an updated version of the nonexistent AF/91 virus be used against unwired Iraq? Stay tuned… April 1st is less than a month away.
Now over two decades old you can still find uninformed US military men, who’ve read about the alleged thing in some “authoritative” source that passed it on years ago, passing it on while adding their own measure of brio.
In the same way myths and apocryphal stories pick up additional dander over time: “They gave us the schematics and we found a way to insert some buggies into their system as the first wave of American bombers streaked toward Baghdad.”
Thrilling!
“The term cyberwar is really just a marketing gimmick,” says the same man, peddling a book “considered the definitive history of the super-secret National Security Agency, or NSA.”
Pulled from YouTube, it’s a segment from the now very old movie, “The Groove Tube.” I thought this was hysterical when I was … about fourteen or fifteen.
“Among other characteristics, it had the strength of steel, the flexibility of rubber, and the nutritional value of beef stew. This revolutionary substance, developed at Uranus, is Brown 25.”
Perhaps the people at Beef Products don’t realize whatever they do they’re now part of a national joke focused on stuff that makes people go “Ewww, gross!”
“Things come out a little differently” for the makers of pink slime. Thirty eight years after the “Uranus Corporation,” art into life.
Today the Post ran a piece on development, or the lack of it, of cyberweapons by the US military. The US government still spends way more on cyberdefense.
“To affect a system, you have to have access to it, and we have not perfected the capability of reaching out and accessing a system at will that is not connected to the Internet,??? said Joel Harding, an independent consultant who is a former military officer and former director of the Information Operations Institute.
Even if an operator gains access, he said, “unless you already have custom-written code for a system, chances are we don’t have a weapon for that because each system has different software and updates.???
The reporter runs down a small list of incidents from wars in last few years which may have involved cyberweapons, all with iffy, virtually non-existent or mixed results. Almost all the sources are anonymous.
“Some experts believe that Israel may have used a cyberweapon to blind Syrian radar before bombing a suspected nuclear facility in September 2007, but several former U.S. officials say that the technique more likely used was conventional electronic warfare or radar jamming using signals emitted from an airplane,” reads the Post.
However, in many circles, belief in a magical quality for cyberweapons remains strong. It has to do with American society, and I summarized it in 2003 when writing about the longevity of belief in the Gulf War virus hoax:
[The] Gulf War virus [played] to a uniquely American trait: a child-like belief in gadgets and technology and the people who make them as answers to everything.
[The] U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to give school administrators a choice regarding the use of “pink slime” in school lunches. For the next school year, administrators can choose to order beef without “pink slime.” This alternative plan was created because of what the USDA dubbed, “customer demand.”
After word got out that schools would continue to use the product, officially called “Lean Finely Textured Beef,” parents and the general public were outraged. Thousands of people signed petitions asking the government to stop buying “pink slime” for school lunches …
Bad publicity did the trick. A good deal of it developed after a television food show lampooned the Beef Products, Inc. material.
“This is not fit for human consumption,” he says. “But what if I told you in America they’ve come up with a bit of technology that can turn this into something that ends up in your school food.” Cut to kid in audience sticking his tongue out and making a face.
It’s great television.
Beef Products, Inc. responded with its own video. And it has not been nearly as effective.
The dry professors trotted out to talk about pink slime have no presence or even much immediate likability. Which might have boomeranged if people — in any number — saw the response. But they didn’t.
One would conclude the USDA decision to allow schools to opt out of using pink slime innovative meat product is viewed with alarm at the company. It was a revenue stream that is threatened by public revulsion, driven by a vociferous consumer group, mothers who would not want their children to unknowingly have it.
With exception of Harley-Davidson, which still makes motorcycles in the US — that always being the entire point of its attraction even when bikes were known as shit when I was you, they all get their cult consumer audiences by making stuff overseas. Or by wiping their feet on employees.
Starbucks is number 2 on this list. On the firm:
With Starbucks, this means that even if you personally think $5 coffee is a joke, you should notice why so many pay that premium:
Consumers carry Starbucks coffee as a badge brand. “People look at you differently if you’re carrying a Starbucks cup than if you walk into a meeting with the Dunkin’ Donuts cup,” says Turkle, the MIT professor and psychologist.
And Starbucks works hard to make customers feel like they’re part of something bigger. You’re joining a community centered on comfortable lounge areas and free Wi-Fi, part of a company strategy to create a “third space” for people to spend time besides home and work, says Maleeny, of Ogilvy & Mather.
Starbucks has cultivated a cult-like loyalty that continues to pay off for shareholders.
You can’t make a living working at Starbucks unless you’re living with someone else, or else holding down a job elsewhere, too.
DD knows. There are lots of Starbucks in Pasadena. You can move back in with your parents if you work at Starbucks. Which, as a matter of fact, some of their workers do here because, by the hour and after taxes, they don’t make so much more than that 5 buck cup of Joe for snobs.
What the American 1 percent and their nationwide shoeshiner support staff really love — in a cult-like way — is labor that’s the equivalent of indentured servitude.
“I wanted the views. I have to do things like torture myself to keep people watching,” says Colleen Ballinger, a 25-year-old comedian whose stage name is Miranda Sings, about her decision to upload her cinnamon challenge attempt. Ms. Ballinger makes money from a percentage of advertising on her YouTube videos. She has 90,000 subscribers to her YouTube channels and a total of 22 million views on her videos.
Corgan lamented changes in the way music is consumed that would’ve made it impossible for him to break into the record industry, much less become a prominent rock star.
After claiming that he would need to set himself on fire on YouTube to get noticed as an unknown act … He compared some artists to sex workers, saying that once you’ve score a record deal, “you’re just the fresh stripper.”
Today, at less than half the price of the guitar app T-shirt, you can still far more simply, legitimately and aggressively tell the world you’re a douchebag with something that dates at least to old Q-Mart vintage, the Shit Cap.
