WEAPONIZING CYBERSPACE

Congrats Dr. Sambaluk. His book is forthcoming with Praeger Weaponizing Cyberspace: Inside Russia’s Hostile Activities.  The Russian regime's struggle for internal control drives multifaceted actions in cyberspace that do not stop at national borders. Cybercrime, technical hacking, and disinformation are complementary tools to preserve national power internally while projecting effects onto myriad neighbors and rivals. Russia's modus operandi in disinformation campaigning is specifically to find and exploit existing sore spots in other countries. In the U.S., this often means inflaming political tensions among people on the far left and far right. Russia's actions have taken different forms, including the sophisticated surveillance and sabotage of critical infrastructure, the ransoming of data by criminal groups, and a welter of often mutually contradictory disinformation messages that pollute online discourse within and beyond Russia. Whether deployed to contribute to hybrid war or to psychological fracture and disillusionment in targeted societies, the threat is real and must be understood and effectively addressed.

AFCC Educates Joint and Allied Special Operators through Joint Staff Collaboration

Air Force Cyber College professors Anthony Franks and Dr. Michael Thomas traveled Joint Warfighter Center in Suffolk, Virginia on November 16 – 17, 2021 to teach Cyber Fundamentals for Special Operations Forces (SOF) Operators to a group of 20 students from the 118^th Air Support Operations Squadron (Air National Guard), Naval Special Warfare Group, US Army Special Operations Command Rangers, Canadian Forces SOF, and Joint Staff J6 Coalition Interoperability Division.

After attending this 2-day course, one member of the Joint Staff J6 Coalition Interoperability Division said, “Within one day we had immediate applicability of the Cyber Fundamentals Course, where we in the Special Operations Command could learn and apply the academic course objectives into future joint and coalition operations for our defense community.”  He went on to say, “This course is a complete homerun, and we want this course to be THE standard that we send ALL Special Operators to, learning about cyber capabilities and the integration of these effects into defense operations.”

AFCC Case Studies in Use by 333rd Training Squadron at Keesler AFB in Mississippi

Cyber College’s vision, developing case studies for us to use in our curriculum and also making them available for others to use, is already coming true. Capt Kevin Goehring of the 333rd Training Squadron at Keesler AFB in Mississippi used an exercise written by Team Cyber’s own Col Kevin Parker, titled “Fly, Patch, and Don’t Lose,” when he recently taught the Undergraduate Cyber Warfare Training (UCWT) course. Col Parker’s case explores the interaction between cybersecurity and Air Force operational missions. Capt Geohring reported that participants “loved the real-world connection and the exposure to cyber and how it ties into operations outside of the unit level.”    

Air Force Cyber College calls for submission of cyber and information dilemma-focused case studies to contribute to our pool of table top and role play exercises to promote critical thinking in the classroom. Successful applicants will be invited to our workshop and completed cases may be selected for funding. 

Unleashing the U.S. Military's Thinking about Cyber Power
M.A. Thomas

In February 2021, a cyber attacker tried to poison the water in Oldsmar, Florida. The hacker gained access to a program used to control a water treatment plant and attempted to increase the amount of lye, which is used to regulate pH levels, in the water to unsafe levels. An alert plant operator saw his mouse moving on its own and stopped the attack. Similar unsuccessful attacks have occurred in Israel, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Ellsworth, Kansas. In October 2021, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert regarding ongoing cyber threats to U.S. water and wastewater systems.

This is an example of a cyber attack with physical effects made possible by manipulation of computers that are increasingly used as controllers of machines, physical systems, and processes. Proof-of-concept “cyber-physical” attacks have been conducted on generators, cars, cranes, and satellites. Attackers can commandeer systems or cause physical damage, as demonstrated by the STUXNET worm, which was used to damage Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges and slow the enrichment process. And as the attacks on water systems illustrate, they could even cause bodily harm.

Military Technology Development:  World War

The geographic stability of World War I’s Western Front drove unprecedented levels and forms of technological innovation.  Dr. Nicholas Sambaluk spotlights several key tech areas about a struggle that changed warfare, in a lunchtime talk on 27 September, 2021, with Purdue's uniformed officers. Purdue extends a tuition-paid opportunity for a cadre of uniformed officers, usually seeking engineering degrees of one kind or another, to study for their PhD gratis to the government.  This year, that cadre is 40 officers strong, and the coordinators requested a lecture about historical examples of military innovation.