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NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

nytimes.com

31–40 of 214 posts

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#31
post #19

I've often thought about what the next "Great War" would look like. Not researched it or anything but mulled it over. I honestly think the enemy will take out our power stations via malicious code that may already be sitting there waiting to go off right now. A few days after that, when people are still in total darkness and the supermarket shelves are empty then we will turn on ourselves and our "leaders" because we…

>then we will turn on ourselves and our "leaders" I don't think in such case normal people would be able to reach "leaders" in their bunkers or whatever they prepare.

There are various tiers of leaders, each of which gets their own subset of authority. Perhaps the President and Congress gets their own bunkers, but I sincerely doubt mayor X in Y town in Ohio is getting flown out to a mountainside retreat.

Coincidentally with the increase in military equipment being sold to local police departments these days, said mayors will have some firepower to work with if they ever do decide to convince their townspeople to go rogue and play for keeps.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#32
The article is full of conventional thinking that extrapolates directly from current trends.

Most likely the critical IT need in the Next World War will be bioinformatics to identify pathogens being used in biowarfare and to design, produce and distribute vaccines, drugs, and other countermeasures. The second IT need will be to enable society to function without the movement of or physical contact between people in order to limit contagion.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#33
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Screaming Fist" type incident... What's that?

It's a reference to Neuromancer, the book. Screaming Fist was the name of an operation that turned out to be a red herring with lethal consequences for those who believed it was a genuine thing. edit: I can't tell if parent refers to the red herring or the objectives of the Screaming Fist operation.

Wouldn't have worked on the abacus and the pencil.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#34

I've often thought about what the next "Great War" would look like. Not researched it or anything but mulled it over. I honestly think the enemy will take out our power stations via malicious code that may already be sitting there waiting to go off right now. A few days after that, when people are still in total darkness and the supermarket shelves are empty then we will turn on ourselves and our "leaders" because we…

The next great war will likely be a long drawn out low intensity conflict (think proxy war with a lot of direct cyber war on the side) that manages to stay under the threshold for opening a can of nuclear whoop-ass. Big powers aren't gonna get in an over the table shooting war if they can avoid it for fear of the other opening that can. I dunno if that kind of situation meets your definition of "great" though.

Edit: The comment I'm replying to changed substantially since I replied.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#35
post #3

Maybe the US would do well to obsess a little less about wars? After spending 90%+ of its time existing on being at war, it sure would seem like a good time to take a break and stop attacking other countries maybe.

I don't get why Trump gets slammed by the media for talking to Kim Yong and walking back on Iran, or even trying to set up meetings with Taliban this month. Just because he's negociating doesn't mean negociating in itself is wrong, so I find that peculiar.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#36

That states like China and Russia can recruit the best cybersecurity talent in their respective countries, and force them to work for the government, while the United States can't, is a problem. If I were the president, I would focus on talent recruitment and retention. Google is paying its top cyberstaff 700k? Offer them 1M. Also get rid of archaic hiring practices like drug tests, and streamline the process to obta…

Sounds like an interesting plan.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#37

I've often thought about what the next "Great War" would look like. Not researched it or anything but mulled it over. I honestly think the enemy will take out our power stations via malicious code that may already be sitting there waiting to go off right now. A few days after that, when people are still in total darkness and the supermarket shelves are empty then we will turn on ourselves and our "leaders" because we…

Yes, the power will go out and in a matter of just a few days we will be overthrowing our leadership. Lol.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#38

> There are four key implications of this revolution that policymakers in the national security sector will need to address: > The first is that the unprecedented scale and pace of technological change will outstrip our ability to effectively adapt to it. Second, we will be in a world of ceaseless and pervasive cyberinsecurity and cyberconflict against nation-states, businesses and individuals. Third, the flood of da…

not enough appreciation for rising marginal costs of innovation. it's easy to see in biotech and pharmaceuticals (same number of innovations costing more and more). it will eventually happen in every other narrowly scoped field.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#39
post #32

The article is full of conventional thinking that extrapolates directly from current trends. Most likely the critical IT need in the Next World War will be bioinformatics to identify pathogens being used in biowarfare and to design, produce and distribute vaccines, drugs, and other countermeasures. The second IT need will be to enable society to function without the movement of or physical contact between people in o…

So you counter their conventional thinking that extrapolates from 2019 trends with conventional thinking extrapolating from 1989 trends. A bit unconventional but sure.

Re: NSA Official: We Need to Prepare for the Future of War

#40

That states like China and Russia can recruit the best cybersecurity talent in their respective countries, and force them to work for the government, while the United States can't, is a problem. If I were the president, I would focus on talent recruitment and retention. Google is paying its top cyberstaff 700k? Offer them 1M. Also get rid of archaic hiring practices like drug tests, and streamline the process to obta…

I’m not biased at all, just a patriot, and I think the government should inflate the wages of all software engineers in the entire nation to $1M in the name of national defense.
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