Team Fortress, Too

The Pentagon is going to war on the internets.

The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

The military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced by President Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks.

Mr. Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House office — reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multibillion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and manage the air traffic control system.

White House officials say Mr. Obama has not yet been formally presented with the Pentagon plan. They said he would not discuss it Friday when he announced the creation of a White House office responsible for coordinating private-sector and government defenses against the thousands of cyberattacks mounted against the United States — largely by hackers but sometimes by foreign governments — every day.

But he is expected to sign a classified order in coming weeks that will create the military cybercommand, officials said. It is a recognition that the United States already has a growing number of computer weapons in its arsenal and must prepare strategies for their use — as a deterrent or alongside conventional weapons — in a wide variety of possible future conflicts.

Time to put all those scriptkids, hackers, /b-tards and WoW forum junkies to work in defending America against those asymmetrical cyber threats, I guess.

Here's my first question: If Obama's the one creating this Pentagon Cyber Command department, you would think 8 years after 9/11, how come Bush hadn't started the ball roling on this? Congress gave the guy a blank check after all. No money to stop Chicom hackers and Russian black hats? C'mon. Being fascist and military all over the net? Republicans should have really jumped all over this and thrown billions at tech companies for consulting...or maybe they did and just classified the hell out of it. Obama's just taking the credit for it, maybe.

Here's my second question: considering the internet is a major equalizer when it comes to getting out information for both sides of a conflict (one man's freedom fighter information page is another man's terrorist web site) will the Pentagon now be targetting the internet to create information blackouts? Is this what they mean by using "computer weapons alongside conventional weapons?" Or is this just another iteration of the old Total Information Awareness program?

Does the US need to defend its cyber turf? Absolutely...but borders and sovereignty on the net is a tricky thing. You weaponize those borders, and things can get nasty, quick.