26 May 16. US Must Prepare For Cyber Warfare In Space. The developing stage for warfare is in cyberspace, but the next stage could well grow in a familiar frontier, space. The modern world is not merely using outer space, it’s utterly reliant on it. From GPS to communication satellites, we use space to relay messages, gather intel, control sophisticated machinery from across the globe – and knocking these targets out can be a very attractive prospect for a rogue actor. A recent report from the Center for a New American Security highlights precisely these vulnerabilities and calls on the Pentagon to change its strategy with it comes to safeguarding space-bound strategic resources. The report warns that China, Russia, and other rivals to the West have noticed our reliance on space and are plotting ways to exploit it. Space is “becoming a domain like any other, air, sea, land, and electromagnetic, in which the United States will have to compete and fight the ability to access and exploit the domain rather than assume safe and uncontested passage within and use of it,” the report reads. Satellites, the reports states, are threatened not only by missiles, but by cyberwarfare and electronic attacks. as well. Speaking with The Washington Post, the report’s author, Elbridge Colby (former adviser to Mitt Romney), said that even if adversaries don’t shoot down satellites, they will look for ways to disable them. The US must consider not only how to protect its assets in space, the report advises, but what to do if and when these assets are destroyed. A possible solution could come from a return to Cold War doctrine. Back then, the threat was that in the case of an attack in space, the US would reply with a major attack outside it. Colby suggests a return to such a policy to prevent disaster. (Source: Cyber Security Intelligence/I-HLS)
27 May 16. Open Access To The Snowden Archive. Emulating the Panama Papers Archive, Edward Snowden and The Intercept Magazine have made a searchable archive of the secret documents he illegally exfiltrated from the NSA while working there. The Intercept is announcing two innovations in how they report on and publish these materials. Both measures are designed to ensure that reporting on the archive continues in as expeditious and informative a manner as possible, in accordance with the agreements entered into with Snowden about how these materials would be disclosed.
The first measure involves the publication of large batches of documents.
They will begin publishing installments of the NSA’s internal SIDtoday newsletters, which span more than a decade beginning after 9/11. We are starting with the oldest SIDtoday articles, from 2003, and working through the most recent in our archive, from 2012. The first release today contains 166 documents, all from 2003, and they will periodically release batches until the entire set is made public. The documents are available on a special section of The Intercept. The SIDtoday documents run a wide gamut: from serious, detailed reports on top secret NSA surveillance programs to breezy, trivial meanderings of analysts’ trips and vacations, with much in between. Many are self-serving and boastful, designed to justify budgets or impress supervisors. Others contain obvious errors or mindless parroting of public source material. But some SIDtoday articles have been the basis of significant revelations from the archive. Accompanying the release of these documents are summaries of the content of each, along with a story about NSA’s role in Guantánamo interrogations, a lengthy roundup of other intriguing information gleaned from these files, and a profile of SIDtoday. Journalists, researchers, and interested parties are invited to comb through these documents, along with future published batches, to find additional material of interest.
Intercept editors and reporters have carefully examined each document, redacted names of low-level functionaries and other information t