Blogs of War

Robot swarm in the battlespace may not be as far off as many think. Sure, many obstacles remain but we’re advancing at an amazing pace. Imagine these weaponized – with just enough intelligence and payload to find and kill a human target within a mile or two. The effect on battlefield tactics will be profound but it may have an even greater impact on policy. Going to war is only going to get easier – as long as the robots are on your side.

http://nasa.blogsofwar.com will be streaming live video of the launch and all related tweets. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:02am EST. This is an extremely cool mission:

“NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission is preparing to set down a large, mobile laboratory — the rover Curiosity — using precision landing technology that makes many of Mars’ most intriguing regions viable destinations for the first time. During the 23 months after landing,

Curiosity will analyze dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. Curiosity will carry the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers. Its assignment: Investigate whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life and for preserving clues in the rocks about possible past life.”

There’s more on the mission’s home page.

Recommended on Twitter: @MarsCuriosity – Official NASA Twitter feed for the MSL Mission.

I’ve monitored a number of noble stands against cartel corruption over the years – most of which ended in murder. What Barrett Brown and Anonymous are doing with #OpCartel feels more like grandstanding than sacrifice for the greater good and will likely trigger the same ugly response.

Mr. Brown is of course free to risk his life. That is precisely what he is rather needlessly doing with this op and silly video. My primary concern is the number of innocent people who could get caught in the Anonymous-Cartel crossfire and die as a result. Identifying a cartel member or collaborator will almost certainly trigger reprisals and cartels have this really nasty habit of including all manner of innocent family members, associates, neighbors, and bystanders in their targeted killings.

It’s difficult to have faith that Barrett Brown and the anons will release this information in any sort of responsible manner when the first acts of #OpCartel feature them blowing their OPSEC all to hell. And it’s not just their own security that they’re compromising. They have potentially endangered the personal security of innocent bystanders just by announcing their intentions in such a public and clumsy manner.

ProTip: When declaring war on some of the most dangerous, highly trained, connected, and well-funded psychopaths on the planet DON’T TELL THEM YOU’RE COMING.

Recommended on Twitter: @BarrettBrownLOL. Barrett Brown’s work has appeared in The Guardian, al-Jazeera, Vanity Fair, HuffPo, New York Press, Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptic, McSweeney’s, American Atheist, others. Unofficial Anonymous spokesman.

Related: Krypt3ia has a good, and rather blunt, post on this.

I’ve thrown together a presidential address monitor for tonight’s speech. There are live Twitter streams for Obama and reaction to his address. You can also find links to the White House and up to date unemployment data. I’m also testing out a new split screen view that will allow you to watch the speech while monitoring reaction on Twitter.

Update
The monitors created to track the Egyptian revolution were so popular that I’ve expanded the coverage significantly. You can see the new configuration here. As part of this transition I’ve standardized on a single template and do not produce the multiple versions of each monitor as described below.

Original Post
A link to the Crisis Monitor can be found at the top of every page. The primary page offers streaming tweets and Al Jazeera English video as well as links to a few other resources (video, images, aggregated news) which I tend to update as events unfold.

Blogs of War has been streaming live tweets since the protests started on the January 25th. Initially only tweets containing the #Jan25 or #Egypt hashtag were monitored but there have been several modifications and new features added to the site as the scale and importance of this event became clear. It isn’t a comprehensive resource but I think it is useful for monitoring the big picture and getting up to speed quickly.

There are two other versions of the Crisis Monitor. A smaller, stripped down, mobile version and a much larger widescreen version which includes three different feeds of streaming tweets and Al-Jazeera English.

The widescreen version of the Crisis Monitor is the type of tool I’d typically build for myself when monitoring a significant event. In fact, that’s why it was initially created. However, I decided to roll out this quick and dirty solution to Blogs of War readers, rather than keep it to myself, because the incredibly large scale and speed of this event is just too much for one person to monitor.

This model has worked pretty well and will be a regular feature (with even more improvements) on Blogs of War during significant events. If you have suggestions for new features or enhancements drop me a line.

This diverse group of hackers (black, white, and grey hats), infosec pros, security media, independent researchers, and federal types can also be found (along with a lot of other people) on the Blogs of War Cyberwar list (live tweets). Some of these folks are a bit controversial but they’re all interesting and worth a follow.

Alexsotirov – Alexander Sotirov. Independent security researcher, speaker and occasional rockstar. Famous on the Internets. Also, better than being poked with a stick. Blogger.

AttackResearch – A company devoted to the in-depth understanding of computer based attacks.

BlackHatUSA – The World’s Premier Technical Security Conference.

Bobgourley – A CTO. Also find me @CTOvision and @CTOlist. National Security, Cyber Security and Enterprise IT are key topics of interest.

BreakingPoint – A cybersecurity company, pioneered the Cyber Tomography Machine to measure the performance, stability, and security of network infrastructure.

Carnal0wnage – Chris Gates also blogs.

CiscoSecurity – Security * technology * events * news * humor * Cisco!

Citizenlab – Research and development at the intersection of cyberspace, global security, and human rights; at Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Canada.

CyberSecure – DC-based cyber security advocacy and analysis group. Providing the latest news and insightful commentary from around the web.

Cyberwar – Richard Stiennon. Security industry analyst reporting on cyber defence and author of Surviving Cyberwar. Also tweets at Stiennon and Blogs at http://threatchaos.com/.

Cyberwar_geek – IT professional by accident, geek by nature. Grad Student in IA and military buff/asymmetrical warfare hobbyist. Christ Follower.

Danchodanchev – Independent Cyber Threats Analyst, OSINT/Cyber CI Analyst, ZDNet.com Blogger, also blogs here. Currently missing – reportedly institutionalized. More on this bizarre story here.

Danphilpott – Dan Philpott. Federal Cybersecurity, Information Assurance & Cloud policy and practice. Improving the art of state info security through state of the art info security.

DCgov – Patrick Thibodeau. DC reporter at Computerworld and blogger at DCBlogs.com.

Evgenymorozov – Evgeny Morozov. Author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom.

GovInfoSecurity – Eric Chabrow is executive editor of GovInfoSecurity.com.

IBMFedCyber – Chris Ensey. Principal Security Strategist for IBM Federal.

Iiamit – Iftach Ian Amit. Father, husband, hacker, executive and general trouble maker/seeker/solver.

InfosecurityMag – Infosecurity is the only magazine dedicated to the strategy and technique of information security, delivering critical business and technical information for IT.

InfowarMonitor – The Information Warfare Monitor is a joint project of The SecDev Group and the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the University of Toronto.

ISDpodcast – Your daily source of Pwnage, Policy and Politics in the InfoSec community.

Jeffreycarr – author, ‘inside Cyber Warfare’ (O’Reilly Media 2009)

Kaspersky – Leading developer of Internet threat management solutions that protect against all forms of malicious software.

Keitheobrien – Cisco Distinguished Systems Engineer. Blogger.

Kevinmitnick – Kevin Mitnick. Computer Security Consultant, Public Speaker.

Kpoulsen – Kevin Poulsen is a senior editor at Wired.com and editor of the award-winning blog Threat Level.

Krypt3ia – Ethical hacker and photographer, blogger.

Mikko H. Hypponen – CRO at F-Secure.

MBenLakhoua – Mourad Ben Lakhoua. In Tunisia. Blogger.

Panda_Security – One of the world’s leading creators and developers of technologies, products and services for keeping clients malware free.

Paperghost- Chris Boyd. Threat Researcher, GFI Software (formerly Sunbelt Software). Research includes Ad/Spy/malware, IM, P2P, phishing, console hax & more.

Regsecurity – The Register Security News

Rjacksix – Robin Jackson of http://dc406.com

Robertvamosi – Writes about hackers and those who watch the hacker community.

SCMagazine – Our mission is to provide IT security professionals with in-depth and unbiased information in one incomparable publication.

SecurityWeek – Internet and Enterprise Security News, Insights and Analysis, By the Industry, For the Industry.

Taosecurity – Richard Bejtlich. Director of Incident Response for General Electric. TaoSecurity blogger. Author. Black Hat instructor.

Th3j35t3r – Hacktivist for good. Obstructing the lines of communication for terrorists, sympathizers, fixers, facilitators, oppressive regimes and other general bad guys.

Thedarktangent – Jeff Moss, also known as The Dark Tangent, is the founder of the Black Hat and DEF CON computer hacker conferences.

ThisIsHNN – Hacker News Network.

Threatpost – Threatpost is the first stop for fast-breaking security news, conversations and analysis from around the world.

WeldPond – Chris Wysopal. Software security dude, former L0pht researcher.

Zecurion – Data Protection Company, Treats Internal Threats: Encrypt. Block. Control.

I’m not doing a page-by-page analysis but I’ll point you to three excellent posts:

Al Malahem’s Inspire 4: Crusades Rhetoric and Tactical Updates In A Feedback Loop by @crabbyolbastard

and

al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s al-Malahem Media releases Inspire Magazine Issue #4 by @Azelin

and

Awlaki Breaks Silence In New Issue Of Inspire, Builds Links To History Of Jihad by @IntelWire

There are a few interesting things to note about this issue. First, the production quality has improved significantly. This is looking less like your office newsletter and more like a professionally produced print publication every day. This is especially interesting when contrasted with the extremely limited thinking evident in their discussions about “Open Source Jihad”. In short, the strategic masterminds behind some of this content have more experience making things look FABULOUS than they do killing people. I’m reminded of this for some reason:

Now, I’m not minimizing the long-term threat of their approach here. There is reason for concern. I just continue to think that they are, thankfully, executing poorly. Declaring man will set foot on the moon is a visionary idea. Looking for the best horse to take him there is poor execution of that idea. This is the current state of open source Jihad.

There is another significant development in this issue that others have touched on but that I don’t want to elaborate on here. I will say that I will not be surprised if, eventually, elements of this production team are discovered and authorities (or perhaps some independent ethical hackers) credit this issue with the breakthrough.

Download: Inspire 4 (PDF)

Here is another highly recommended group pulled from my “Following” list. Like the last set of recommendations, this pool represents a diversity of opinions. If you want your worldview reinforced with every passing tweet (and a lot of people do) some of these folks are guaranteed to rub you the wrong way. Even so, they’re all quality feeds which are guaranteed to keep you informed and thinking.

Abuaardvark – Marc Lynch. Blogger at Foreign Policy. Marc is an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Abumuqawama – Andrew Exum. Abu Muqawama is a blog dedicated to following issues related to contemporary insurgencies as well as counterinsurgency tactics and strategy. Abu Muqawama aims to be a resource for students, counterinsurgents, academics, and the general public.

AfpakChannel – Katherine Tiedemann. Tweeting analysis of the news about all things AfPak from her perch at the New America Foundation and Foreign Policy.

Alert5 – Military news from around the world. Blogs at Alert5. Actively covering the J-20 story out of China.

AlexLobov – Alexander Lobov. Melburnian. Financial journalist. Blogger. Asian financial markets. Middle Eastern politics. Afghanistan & Pakistan. Good food & coffee.

Azelin – Aaron Y. Zelin. Research Assistant, Department of Politics, Brandeis University. Blogs at Jihadology.

BlakeHounshell – Blake Hounshell. Managing Editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

DianaWueger – Blogs about defense policy and military and intelligence issues at Gunpowder and Lead.

Don_Reuters – Don Pessin. Reuters TV news producer based out of Washington, D.C..

InkSptsGulliver – Ink Spots is a blog dedicated to the discussion of security issues across the spectrum of conflict & around the world. I’m a cog in the mil-industrial machine.

IntlJurist – The International Jurist is a blog offering perspectives and opinions on the current state of international law and its future.

IsdPodcast – Your daily source of Pwnage, Policy and Politics in the InfoSec community.

JimmySky – James Skylar Gerrond. Military Technology Assessment, Info Nerd, Foreign Policy, Counter Insurgency, Law Enforcement and novice Social Engineer.

JoshMull – Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for @bravenewfound/@firedoglake Project Coordinator at @SmallWorldNews Contributor to @EnduringAmerica and @Polizeros

Laurenist – if nothing else, always stand for equality and human rights (and misha collins). Blogs about “about international development, advocacy, and taking over the world” at Lauren(ist).

Max_Fisher – Max Fisher writes primarily about foreign affairs and national security. He previously produced the Atlantic’s Food Channel and has written for The New Republic and Conde Nast Traveler. Follow him on Twitter.

Noonanjo – John Noonan. Policy Advisor with @ForeignPolicyI, writer for The Weekly Standard, ICBM expat.

Ndubaz – Nicholas Dubaz. US Army Civil Affairs Officer. From New Orleans. Afghanistan vet. Interests: Conflict, development/aid, languages, classical music & travel.

Rory_Medcalf – Foreign affairs and security analyst, Asia specialist, India watcher, ex-diplomat, journalist, intelligence analyst. Program director at Lowy Institute, Sydney.

Starbuck_WOI – Crispin J. Burke. Blogs at Wings Over Iraq

Stavridisj – Admiral James Stavridis Supreme Allied Commander and Commander, US European Command.

SultanAlQassemi – Sultan Al Qassemi. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a columnist for The National & Emarat Alyoum & founder of the @BarjeelArt Foundation. Tweets about the Arabian Gulf and blogs at Felix Arabia.

TheMoorNextDoor – Quid novi ex Africa? North Africa, foreign policy & American Muslim issues. Blogs at The Moor Next Door.

Weddady – Mauritanian activist, focused on civil rights in the Mideast and North Africa. Great updates on the situation in Tunisia. Blogs at Dekhnstan.

WhiteCanvasGrp – Creativity Unrestricted = innovation + technical acumen + academic scholarship.

Xrauscher_ – Xavier Rauscher. Passionate about international law, comparative law and international affairs. Blogger. Currently a legal intern at the Coalition for the ICC in The Hague.

As predicted, and promised, better quality video is already available and posted here. I’m sure that within a few weeks we’ll have HD chase plane footage set to a Metallica soundtrack. When it drops, I’ll post it here.

Thanks again to Kursed for the tip.

The quality is quite bad. Really, you’d think someone bothering with all this could manage to hold a camera steady for 30 seconds but…

I expect more video (of higher quality) will be available in the coming days and I’ll share as it becomes available. For now this still photo offers the best proof that testing is underway.

Thanks to Kursed for the tip.