Most people are well aware that a 29 year old NSA contractor has released various levels of classified documents to the press. This has caused a furor in the government as they both try to hold Snowden accountable and not…
Category: Technology
The term “technology” does not follow the same linguistic pattern as “biology” and “geology” because its etymology is different. While “biology” and “geology” are derived from Greek roots, with “bio” meaning life and “geo” meaning Earth, “technology” has Latin roots.
“Technology” comes from the combination of two Greek words: “techne,” meaning skill or art, and “logia,” meaning study or science. So, the term “technology” literally means the study or science of skills or arts. It reflects a broader concept that goes beyond the study of a specific substance (like life or the Earth) to encompass a wide range of human-made tools, systems, and techniques.
The before there is data data, otherwise known as protodata
The description of data and information is a perspective based process. Anybody who has read a book on information theory could tell you that you have information that comes from data that is made up of bits. And bits are…
Internet of things. Land of the exploitable
I’ve been watching the view of corporate America suddenly discover the chittering of the Internet of things. Since much of the impetus of IPV6 was to enable this wholesale change toward a global grid of information enabled devices we shouldn’t…
Cybernetics: Intro to utility and scholarship
The cybernetics academic community is a rich and varied area of research, but in my opinion it is death to the academic career. The principles of cybernetics were developed and co-opted by what would later become computer scientists. In other…
So you want to play a game: Command and control warfare
There is a reason the first mass media movie on cyber warfare has the computer WOPR playing games than war. To the technical well-informed individuals who make up the information technology discipline war is a game. WOPR though existed in…
Cyber as guerrilla or insurgency conflict (war)
These are some articles I’ve written on the topic. Liles, S., “ A unified generational warfare model”, The Handbook of 5th Generation Warfare, 2010 Liles, S., “The issues of non-state actors and the nation state”, Threats in the Age of Obama,…
Let’s talk about cyber warfare
Cyber is a short hand for something we don’t understand but we’ll lump it under the word cyber because it is sexy. Cyber can be networks, processing, storage of information, the information itself, cognition, social interaction, and so much more.…
Manhattan project for cyber security
Mr. Lewis Shepherd of Microsoft came to Purdue to give a talk for CERIAS awhile back and he talked about how equating the Manhattan Project to the world of cyber security is completely wrong. I liked his talk quite a…
Cyber warfare: Huffingtonpost
Cyber warfare by Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight Jr. at Huffpost World I spent a lifetime in the military and, while I love the officers and troops without reservation, I hate the greed and poor judgment that motivates certain segments of…
Cyber weapons, weapons of mass discussion
When we talk about cyber weapons a point that often gets missed is that because cyber is a domain there are many forms weapons can take. There is an inherent tendency to focus on the muskets of cyber. The virus,…
2013 Prognostications
I skipped doing this for a few years but I’ll be back at it again. Most of these prognostications are based on the principles of computing as a utility, erosion of the professional information technology field, and risk acceptance as…
Cyber is to electronic warfare as rain is to a dam
I’ve watched as the cyber v. electronic warfare fight rages. The dollars, power, esteem, and leadership within the government drive forces in the debate. On the one hand you have a tried and true organization like the Association of Old…
Information States and Principles
Cyber forensics: A sub-discipline of law and a discipline in need of a science
The following is a concept map (not the only one to be sure) of the cyber forensics world and it’s relationship to the forensic discipline. In summary forensic science is a sub discipline of law. Cyber forensics is a sub…
Aligning strategy to goals in cyber warfare
First, there is no such thing as cyber warfare. There is war in the cyber domain and cyber will likely be an adjunct in the future towards other aims of war. Much like air, land and sea conflicts are adjuncts…