Sep 29 2008

USAF beams with pride over an absurd cyber-terror movie

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Hollywood’s newest cinema release, “Eagle Eye,” continues their infatuation with blood-spilling high-action big-budget cyber-terror movies. Major film critics, on the other hand, continue to pan any flick with an absurd Rube Goldberg cyberspace plot.

[Editor's note: this column contains spoilers for the movie "Eagle Eye."]

USAF website spotlights their role in the movie Eagle Eye

USAF website spotlights their role in the movie Eagle Eye

But here’s the kicker. The U.S. Air Force desperately wants a role in every absurdist cyberspace big-budget movie made today. They now brag on their website about contributing to “Eagle Eye” and its Colossus / WOPR / Skynet plotline.

Let’s make sure we get this straight, folks. From roughly a third of the way in until the post-climactic wrap, the actors consistently describe it as the most horrifying act of “cyber-terrorism” ever inflicted on the United States. And who master­minded all this cyber-terror against the U.S.? No evil empires, no chest-thumping bad guys, no CIA double agents, no alien cyborgs… Believe it or not, the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense itself orchestrated every single bit of the movie’s cyber-terrorism, aided by a hoard of “comm weenies” with AFSCs like 3C0x2 and 3C0x1 and 3C1x1 and 3C2x1.

Now you know why the U.S. Air Force must lead the way in cyberspace. America needs them to build digital armories filled with deadly cyber weapons so insane villains can remotely hack into them during Phase IV of their diabolical plan to overthrow the United States government.

It pains me to say this, but … USAF has finally topped its “Iron Eagle” debacle of 1986. Let’s check out just a few of the Air Force’s bragging rights in “Eagle Eye,” shall we?

  • A missile fired from an MQ-9 UAV wipes out an innocent funeral procession in an Afghan village;
  • A malfunctioning, autonomous, self-aware, ultra-secret super­computer buried under the Pentagon no doubt falls under the auspices of Air Force Cyberspace Command;
  • Two hapless individuals at a civilian airport step aboard a C-17 ramp with an unguarded (!) “A1 priority” container destined for the Pentagon;
  • A hacked F-16 ejects its pilot over the Washington, DC region; and
  • A hacked MQ-9 UAV fires missiles inside a freeway tunnel (aka a critical U.S. infrastructure) in the Washington, DC region.

It’s a movie cliché: “USAF will lose remote-control of deadly cyber­space weapon sys­tems that will go on to kill inno­cent people in the U.S. and/or a third-world country…”

You’ll notice I said “just a few of” USAF’s bragging rights. Don’t even get me started on a self-evolving weapon system that magically overcomes its intrinsic physical limitations to make the leap from omniscient to omnipotent. And don’t get me started on the posse comitatus issues for a Pentagon network that performs domestic spy ops. And don’t get me started on all the airports, trains, traffic lights, street cams, Porsche cruise controls, cell phones, X-ray machines, OnStarand any other non-USAF hacks.

Roger Ebert opened his movie review by saying “the word preposterous is too moderate to describe ‘Eagle Eye.’ This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence.” He goes on to stab the Rube Goldberg plotline: “Why not get a couple of no-neck guys from the West Side to kidnap Jerry, haul him on board a private jet and transport him to Them?”

I agree completely with Ebert. The apartment scene alone qualifies as an epic logistical nightmare. If a rogue military super­computer can acquire an entire truckload of bomb-making materials, poisons, sniper rifles, classified documents, plus fake passports without arousing any federal bureaucratic suspicion whatsoever, then lure delivery men to haul everything to an upstairs apartment without question, precisely during a small window of opportunity while the apartment dweller attends a family funeral—

A rogue military supercomputer convinces delivery men to haul a truckload of bomb-making materials, poisons, sniper rifles, classified documents, plus fake passports to an upstairs apartment and arrange it neatly during a small window of opportunity while the apartment dweller attends a funeral...

Absurd movie plot — a rogue mili­tary super­computer con­vinces delivery men to haul a truck­load of bomb-making materials, poisons, sniper rifles, classi­fied docu­ments, plus fake pass­ports to an up­stairs apart­ment and arrange it neatly during a small win­dow of oppor­tu­nity while the apart­ment dweller attends a funeral...

—then certainly a rogue military super­computer can lure an FBI team to escort our protagonist to the Pentagon, believing he’ll slip into his twin brother’s shoes to wrap up a CIA mission.

I mean, come on! We’re talking about a military super­computer with enough artificial intelligence to fully understand and correctly exploit both human fear and maternal instinct. Tapping a federal marshal’s psychological factors should be a no-brainer, folks.

To paraphrase comedian Greg Giraldo: “Eagle Eye’s plotline has more holes in it than Mel Gibson’s apology.”

And USAF feels proud to have worked on it! Check out this movie studio press release:

Rosario Dawson actually traveled to the Air Force’s OSI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to learn what her real-life counterparts’ lives were like. “We arranged for her to meet with them to learn about what they do,” explains Air Force technical advisor [SMSgt] Vince Aragona. Dawson also spoke with a female agent similar to her own character at L.A. Air Force Base. “That person actually ended up as an extra in the movie,” appearing as Dawson’s sidekick in some scenes.

Other active duty military also appear in the film as extras. “When you get active duty people in here wearing uniform,” Aragona says, “they already know how to walk, how to carry themselves, how to wear the uniforms properly. They’re active duty, they know what they’re doing. Plus, they love doing it…”

I should note the fact Aragona’s name appears in the end credits.

Oh, by the way! Aragona is USAF’s casting director for the upcoming “Trans­formers” sequel. Contact him if you serve in the Air force and want to lose your life in an aerial battle you couldn’t possibly win. But there’s a catch — cyberspace weenies need not apply. The producers want dashing young Pararescue Jumpers and Forward Air Controllers and any other in-lieu-of AFSC that includes a beret.


The most absurd quote comes to us from a positively glowing USAF press release:

“This was a great opportunity for the Air Force to be involved in such an action-packed thriller that reflects our core values through a prominent character in the story,” said Lt. Col. Francisco Hamm, the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office director…

Unlike a normal COTS super­computer that stands idle in a corner, this MIL­SPEC mon­strosity can freely move its silicon brain around the room on a metallic spine that hovers over a moat...

Unlike a normal COTS super­computer that stands idle in a corner, this MIL­SPEC mon­strosity can freely move its silicon brain around the room on a metallic spine that hovers over a moat...

“Core values,” he says? Core values?!? CORE VALUES?!?

In the film, AFOSI special agent Zoe Perez plays one of many unwitting pawns in a military super­computer’s plot to overthrow the U.S. government. Heck, she doesn’t even deliver a monologue. What core value does “secondary movie character” fall under? And what core value does “stabbing a super­computer to death” fall under?

Believe it, folks — our intrepid female Air Force agent stabbed a super­computer to death. You see, unlike a normal COTS super­computer that stands idle in a corner, this MILSPEC monstrosity can freely move its silicon brain around the room on a metallic spine that hovers over a moat, and, uh… well…

Waitaminit. A moat? Man, you gotta love Hollywood.

Hmph. If someone asked me to visualize “a silicon brain on a metallic spine,” I’d think of a Star Trek android like Data or Ilia or Nomad. You know: something that can use its spine to leave a moat-filled bunker. But hey, let’s not digress…

So anyway. If we wait for the DVD, we’ll probably find a deleted scene where Perez’s core values of “integrity, service, and excellence” reflect in the way she retrieves that hacked UAV from the tunnel chase. I can already hear the monologue she delivers over Tom Morgan’s lifeless body:

“You know, when I first met Agent Morgan, we ended up facing off over an Airman’s supposedly accidental death. Both of us engaged in needless posturing while American lives stood at grave risk. I wanted to speak to the dead man’s twin brother; he wouldn’t let me. Later he needed my help to stop a terror attack, but I just verbally flipped him the bird and hopped a flight. I see now that each of us is an important asset in the fight against terror here or abroad. But it took Morgan’s death to open my eyes. It was he, not I, who made the first move. It was he who believed in me first. I learned, almost too late, that this counter-terrorism agent was a feeling creature and, because of it, the greatest in America. I learned, too late for him, that agents have to make their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can’t be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And, when agents seek such perfection, they find there’s only death, fire, loss, disillusionment, cyber-terrorism, the end of everything that’s gone forward. Counter-terror agents have always sought an end to toil and misery. It can’t be given; it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from an agent himself…

Now that’s a monologue, folks. Somebody look on the cutting room floor for Perez’s core values, will you?

Another malfunctioning autonomous deadly supercomputer that can freely move its silicon brain around a room...

Another example of a mal­func­tioning autono­mous deadly super­computer that can freely move its silicon brain around a room...

“But Rob, Perez’s work led her to the Pentagon where she linked up with the Secretary of Defense.” You’d call a chance meeting important? Bah. Everybody can brag about sitting across from some renowned VIP at some chance meeting. My work led me to the White House for a computer security round­table with Richard Clarke. Big whoop.

And besides, I monologue about my own core values way more than this fictitious “Zoe Perez” movie character ever did. So there.

Listen to me, folks. I said it before and I’ll say it again. Hollywood thinks the Air Force’s core value is to set up digital armories filled with deadly cyber weapons so insane villains can remotely hack into them during Phase IV of their diabolical plan to overthrow the United States. If USAF envisions that as one of its core values, then Hamm deserves a glowing performance report.

It’s practically a movie cliché these days for any high-tech government plotline — “USAF will lose remote-control of deadly cyber­space weapon sys­tems that go on to kill inno­cent people in the U.S. and/or a third-world country.” Sad but true. And the U.S. Air Force willingly helps Hollywood to perpetuate this cliché.

“[This movie] re­flects our core values through a promi­nent charac­ter in the story,’ said Lt. Col. Fran­cisco Hamm, the Air Force Enter­tain­ment Liaison Office director…”

Frankly, I view this movie cliché as a side effect of USAF’s fetish to codify a DoD-centric cyberspace mission. Their public affairs branch followed orders to hawk cyberspace as a combat zone … but it looks like no one rescinded the order. USAF’s newly knighted commanding general, Norton Schwartz, should walk down the hall to his public affairs office and say “stop making us look like Colonel Klink; start making us look like Colonel Hogan.”

“Hamm.” What a name for a guy who schmoozes with Hollywood’s glitterati. I’ll bet a soda this staff officer enjoys an open TDY order. Check out his military bio (archived), his civilian bio (archived), plus his LinkedIn profile (archived). Unlike some active duty airmen who bag groceries or deliver pizzas to make ends meet, this airman played an extra in the movie “White Squall” and snapped photos for the indie film “Run Cody.”

(I’ll see a lot of email over this but someone needs to say it. “Doesn’t Hamm’s LinkedIn bio remind you of General ‘Doc Hollywood’?” I’ll bet a soda Hamm’s overseas tour overlapped Doc’s reign of TV terror. “He will probably be remembered most by service­members stationed in Europe for his many commercials on American Forces Network Television…”)


It pains me to say this, but USAF has finally topped its “Iron Eagle” debacle of 1986.

I admit you’ll find some notable exceptions to this movie cliché. For example:

  • In “Transformers,” USAF loses a battle on one of its own airfields and gets hacked into by a robot that slipped undetected onto Air Force One. U.S. Air Force officials pitched in to make the combat losses look authentic.
  • In “Iron Man,” USAF loses an F-22 fighter jet; lets VIPs walk around a military hanger unescorted; lets officers carry personal cell phones into a classified air operations facility; and lets field-grade officers override flag-grade rules of engagement. U.S. Air Force officials pitched in to make the security lapses look authentic.
  • In “Stealth,” yet another malfunctioning autonomous self-aware computer—

oops, waitaminit. “Stealth” centered on the U.S. Navy. My bad. Still, it’s obvious USAF wants to help Hollywood make movies that make USAF look like a bunch of cyber-imbeciles. Hmph.

So. The U.S. Air Force wants to be the third leg in a triad known as the “military-industrial-entertainment complex,” eh? Fair enough. But their misplaced pride in their contributions to “Eagle Eye” makes me wonder if USAF played any role in the production of this action movie

Sep 17 2008

Overseas air base holds a contest at AFCYBER’s expense

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Readers will recall I lambasted the new Air Force Cyberspace Command for publishing a classified publicity photo. A few others have since blogged on this snafu.

This classi­fied photo made its debut on USAF's web­site in July 2007. Its now the center of a contest at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.  The person who identifies the most boo-boos gets two free large pizzas!

This classi­fied photo made its debut on USAF’s web­site in July 2007. It's now the center of a contest at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The person who identifies the most boo-boos gets two free large pizzas!

Now — more than a year after the photo made its debut on USAF’s website — I received an email telling me it’s the focus of a contest at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The person who identifies the most boo-boos in the photo will earn a gift certificate for two large pizzas at the local food joint.

Don’t worry: my source knows to avoid plagiarism in his entry. He even offered to share the pizzas with me if he wins. Hmmm, where did I put my passport?

I surmise this contest is the brainchild of either Kadena’s Intel­li­gence Branch or (more likely) the base Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Squadron. Good for them! Airmen can learn things the easy way by studying others who learned the hard way. Let’s hope Kadena hangs the winning entry next to this motivational poster.

“A contest, Rob? It seems a bit cruel to the people in the photo.” I agree. And a mother cheetah is equally cruel when she brings live prey to her cubs so they can learn to hunt. If USAF wants to hunt the enemy in cyberspace, then a pizza contest is a small price to pay for the skills they’ll need.

I don’t know how you can enter the contest, but I do hope we get to read the winning entry. Stay tuned…

Sep 08 2008

Would you do something this partisan at your mother’s 60th birthday bash?

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This month marks the 61st anniversary of the U.S. Air Force as a separate air service. (Happy birthday, Airmen!) Looking at their website, we see they selected … um, no unit at all for their monthly “heritage highlights.” Darn.

A ranking officer chose to highlight the heritage of a NON-flying unit for USAF's giant 60th anniversary celebration

A ranking officer chose to highlight the heritage of a NON-flying unit for USAF's giant 60th anniversary celebration

USAF’s home page used to highlight the exploits of legendary units like, say, the Tuskegee Wing. Each month they’d highlight a different unit, but this feature disappeared in the past eleven months.

Still, their decision to highlight “no unit” seems a better choice than last year’s pick. As part of USAF’s giant sixtieth birthday bash, they aimed a spotlight at (ta da!) the 67th Network Warfare Wing. Yes, folks, this unit epitomized USAF’s six decades as a separate air service — an intelligence outfit that hasn’t possessed an aircraft since 1993 and wasn’t even designated as a cyberspace unit in the 1990s.

Don’t underestimate the hullabaloo of USAF’s sixtieth anniversary, folks. They tasked a one-star general to manage the year-long festivities, beginning with President Bush’s dedication of a new Air Force Memorial. The flyboys went all-out with newspaper commentaries, TV commercials, artwork, heritage videos, ballroom events, you name it…

…Yet the Air Force also harbors a deep political fetish for cyberspace. They prostituted their own history last year in a cancerous quest to defend DoD’s networks. They want to protect cyberspace so badly that their website touted the heritage of a NON‑flying unit for their all-important sixtieth anniversary.

Can you imagine doing something this partisan at, say, your mother’s sixtieth birthday bash? “Mom, we poured over the many photographs of you as a child, a wife, a mother, and a business­woman. We selected the one moment in time that sums up the very essence of your life and we turned it into a huge framed poster. Ta da! It’s a picture of you stuffing envelopes for the McGovern campaign in 1972…”

Can you imagine doing some­thing this partisan at your mother’s 60th birth­day bash?

So! A decision like this doesn’t just happen, you know — a ranking officer had to ratify this baby. Who, exactly, approved a non‑flying unit to exemplify USAF’s legacy on their big six-oh anniversary?

Wouldn’t you like to know the name of the ranking officer who picked a non‑flying unit over the legendary squadrons that prowled the First World War? Wouldn’t you like to know why he or she ignored flying units with Medal of Honor recipients in World War II and the Korean War? Wouldn’t you like to know the criteria a ranking Air Force officer used to ignore flying units decorated in the Berlin Airlift?

And wouldn’t you like to see this partisan officer get force shaped?

Jun 16 2008

Logic bomb = 2,000 pound JDAM?

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According to Military.com, “the Air Force’s cyber warriors” believe that “dropping a ‘logic bomb’ into a computer network is the same as launching a 2,000-pound JDAM from a B-2 bomber at 20,000 feet.  You’ve done the same kind of damage but with different means.”  Follow [this link] for the breathless story…

Feb 03 2008

What’s wrong with this picture?

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The U.S. Air Force seems far too eager to pitch its new “cyberspace” mission. Case in point: their brand-new Air Force Cyberspace Command (AFCYBER) published a classified publicity photo on their website in July 2007.

Classified publicity photo available on USAF website

This classi­fied photo made its debut on USAF’s web­site in July 2007. They pub­lished a redacted ver­sion in their offi­cial maga­zine but no one bothered to pull the clas­si­fied ver­sion from their web­site. The clas­si­fied photo has since appeared in two dif­ferent mili­tary asso­ci­a­tions’ magazines.

Someone wisely redacted this photo when it appeared in Airman magazine … yet no one bothered to remove it from USAF’s website. Now, both the Air Force Association and the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association have printed the original classified publicity photo in their January 2008 journals.

You could still view the original classified publicity photo at USAF’s website when I published this column. But hey, if you’re a cyber-terrorist, go here so you don’t leave any fingerprints on a U.S. military web server.

“Classified publicity photo.” Hmph. Do you realize how stupid it sounds?

Yes yes yes, I parodied this very photo last year — but I used a reduced version too small for intelligence gathering. For the record: I did not publish the full unretouched snapshot in AFCEA’s international arms magazine. But if they can do it, then I might as well join in on the fun. I posted the original classified publicity photo as no-opsec.jpg purely for your amusement.

(”no-opsec,” get it?)

AFCYBER submitted two similar captions for this classified publicity photo. The more informative caption reads:

Capt. Jason Simmons and Staff Sgt. Clinton Tips update anti-virus software for Air Force units to assist in the prevention of cyberspace hackers July 12 at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. The Air Force is setting up the Air Force Cyberspace Command soon and these Airmen will be the operators on the ground floor. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo)

Everyone tries to put their best foot forward in a publicity photo, but this one is bad on multiple levels. I’m stunned by what it reveals to enemies of the United States.


Let’s begin with the monitor behind the forehead of the man on the right with his face lit up for dramatic effect. It identifies “SIPRNET,” the military’s classified Internet, with a bold red background. Low and to the left of the monitor we can see a small KVM with both a green sticker and a red sticker on it. We see a KVM at each workstation, and the stickers in the left foreground offer enough focus so we can infer “Unclassified” on the green sticker and “Secret” on the red sticker.

If you served in the mili­tary after 1988 or pur­chased a USB flash drive at an Afghan bazaar, then you know the stickers iden­tify classi­fied objects as pro­scribed in Title 32 USC §2003.

Count ‘em, folks: five monitors are on SIPRNET in this photo. The rest are on NIPRNET (aka the Internet). Two SIPRNET screens are password-locked but the other three reveal sensitive data to enemies of the United States.

Two green lights on the KVMs tell us each workstation has two computers; the yellow light above & to the right of a green dot tells us which machine currently has the monitor. But this is odd: we can plainly see two monitors at each workstation. The KVMs look too small to support dual monitors — and we don’t see KVMs stacked on top of each other — so we can deduce AFCYBER connects NIPRNET & SIPRNET machines to each other via one of the monitors.

That’s a major no-no, isn’t it? I don’t think the NSA will let you connect a SIPRNET machine to a NIPRNET machine like that!

(Since Americans read English from left-to-right, you can bet AFCYBER hooks the left monitor to the KVM and connects classified & unclassified computers via the right monitor. Regardless, though, I doubt the NSA likes it when AFCYBER does this.)

Memo to AFCYBER/CV: ask the NSA for advice on dual-monitor KVMs for your ops floor. Seriously. You need them.

If that’s still a no-no, then AFCYBER’s lax security would explain why they didn’t bother to switch all of the monitors to NIPRNET during this photo-op. Lax security would also explain why Capt Simmons himself let a photo-op take place in a non-sanitized room.


Okay, now look at the screen fourth from the left in the foreground. A red background peeks out from the very top of the screen, telling us it’s on SIPRNET. It clearly says “DMS-CRL Status” on the screen. Google for it and you’ll find DMS stands for “Defense Message System,” one of the Pentagon’s mission critical command & control systems. “CRL” stands for “Certificate Revocation List.”

This is an amazing thing to see on a classified screen, folks! We must assume AFCYBER’s ops floor wouldn’t monitor revoked DMS certificates unless they had a reason to monitor them. And that reason is almost certainly classified.

Okay, now look at the screen second from the left in the background. We can see a red background peeking out from the top of that screen. It must be on SIPRNET and it’s visiting a website. We can see AFCYBER uses Internet Explorer — and it’s not even IE7! We can deduce the ops floor uses either IE6 or (shudder) IE5.x. That’s very useful information to any nation-state that would do battle against AFCYBER!

If I had to ven­ture a guess, I’d spec­u­late Chinese intel­li­gence offi­cers phished their way into the NIPRNET and usurped a valid DMS cer­ti­fi­cate. “Ouch.”

The con­ven­tional line of thin­king says “this is a great way to eaves­drop on DoD’s mis­sion criti­cal com­mand & con­trol systems.”

But the non-conven­tional thinkers will say “this is a great way to corrupt DoD’s faith in its own com­mand & con­trol systems.”

Mind you, USAF routinely denies my “Freedom of Information Act” (FOIA) requests for “security” reasons when I ask about the scope of network technology used in the Iraq war(s). As bizarre as it sounds, the Air Intelligence Agency won’t even confirm if they use Microsoft operating systems! Yet it’s all right there in a classified publicity photo on USAF’s website.

If you look at the second screen from the left in the foreground, you’ll see it sports a red desktop background. It looks like the word SECRET is centered on a line of its own at the very top of the screen, in a slightly darker red than the rest of the desktop background. In other words, it’s a security banner for the Microsoft Word document in the window near the top of the screen.

Ah, but what version of Microsoft Word? Any nation-state that would do battle against AFCYBER will want to know this so they can exploit the correct vulnerabilities. Here we can also see Microsoft Outlook in a window — and it looks like version 2003 or 2007.


In the left foreground under a KVM, you’ll notice two identical devices with “CLEARCUBE” written on them. Looking around, you see every workstation has two ClearCubes. So I did the obvious thing: I went to ClearCube.com.

Guess what? They offer a multimedia presentation on how the Army & Air Force use ClearCube products. What a bonanza of knowledge!

If you want to launch, say, an “ADVEIS” attack, then you’ll need as much homogeneity as possible to bring down the entire United States Air Force. And a ClearCube appeals to those who crave homogeneity. If AFCYBER’s top security officials confuse “email security” with “email infrastructure security” (as I suspect they do), then this photo confirms an enemy can exploit AFCYBER’s homogeneity.

We can see AFCYBER places SIPRNET & NIPRNET ClearCubes directly on top of each other. That’s another major no-no, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure the NSA demands a foot or two of distance between them.

The big screens in the far background reveal these essential elements of friendly information:

Why should we trust AFCYBER to pro­tect America’s elec­trons? They can’t even stage a photo-op with­out vio­lating national security!

  • Which major commands fall under which regions of AFCYBER’s Integrated Network Operations Security Center (INOSC). Noticeably missing from the list is Air Force Space Command.
  • Lt McGhee is a crew commander.
  • TSgt Webb (what a name!) and TSgt Selke take care of things like:
    • “IWS” (probably communicating with on-duty personnel at Information Warfare Squadrons);
    • “MSL” (probably entering reportable events in a Master Station Log);
    • “NOTAMS” (probably distributing or perhaps even drafting Notices to Airmen);
    • “TCNOs” (probably monitoring compliance with or perhaps even drafting Time Compliance Network Orders; for example, a public web page at the Air Force Communications Agency says “if a computer violates TCNO compliance, the software script kicks in and administratively removes the computer from the network…”).
  • TSgt Robinson, SSgt Stoll, and SrA Wagoner stand watch over the USAF networks in Iraq & Afghanistan.
  • SSgt Schloemer, SrA Miles, and SrA Henry stand watch over the Air National Guard’s many different networks.

Talk about a social engineering bonanza! You could “phish” all day long at AFCYBER with this kind of knowledge.

Thanks to the big screens in the far background, we know that on 12 July 2007 at 12:52pm ET, both Air Combat Command and Air Force Pacific Command were green on NIPRNET & SIPRNET; and that Air Force Space Command was blue on NIPRNET. It also appears Air Education & Training Command was green on NIPRNET at the time, too.

Shall I whip out another “FOIA rejection letter” for you? The Air Intelligence Agency refuses to release any details about the operational status of collective Air Force networks. They classify this information SECRET, yet America’s enemies can openly acquire it from a classified publicity photo on USAF’s website.


The photo shows two ordinary headphones without boom mikes. It’s useful to know the folks on the ops floor listen to music to relieve monotony. In Hollywood movies, it’s always the bored guard who fails to keep an eye on the security cameras…

Memo to Capt Simmons: since you’re so big on anti­virus soft­ware, you should watch this video and read this column when you get a chance. It’ll open your eyes…

(Heh heh. Do you remember the classic scene in the 1986 movie “Iron Eagle” when our teenage hero pops in his favorite cassette while flying across the ocean in a stolen USAF fighter jet to save his POW father? Nowadays our teenage airmen pop in their favorite rap CDs while they fly & fight in cyberspace!)

Now look at the telephone in the lower center of the photo. It has a yellow card underneath it and we can just barely make out the words “bomb threat.” The phone above it in the background appears to have a similar card underneath it. It’s nice to know AFCYBER takes logic-bomb threats as seriously as it takes physical bomb threats in the heart of Louisiana.

Both men in the foreground left their Air Force ID cards in plain sight. Actually, that’s no big deal — but it’s just one more thing that should not appear in this photo.

This photo is bad on so many different levels that it forces us to ask a philosophical question. “Why should we trust AFCYBER to protect America’s electrons?” These guys can’t even stage a simple photo-op without violating national security!

Here’s some food for thought. The journal for the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association also recently published a photo of the Navy’s Network Warfare Command ops floor. The folks on that ops floor took OPSEC seriously before the paparazzi walked in.


“C’mon Rob, you served a tour in the Air Force in the 1980s. Don’t you want your alma mater to protect America’s cyberspace?” Sure — but I won’t let a granfalloon stand in the way of the mission. “Go Navy” if you want competent cyberspace protection.

I’m half-tempted to park my RV near Barksdale AFB for a few days. You know: just for the fun of it. Heaven only knows what I might find if I sniff for wireless networks around the AFCYBER headquarters building…