Information Warfare: January 27, 2003

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The military and government, desperate to defend their computer networks, and unable to offer the kind of pay and working conditions that will attract enough skilled computer security staffs, are eager to use more automation. In fits and starts, computer security technicians have been building automated tools that will watch over their networks for attacks. Naturally, these Guard Bots are becoming more powerful, and are now available. This special software constantly watches data coming in and out of a government or military web server and look for patterns that indicate a hacking attempts. While nice in theory, there is now the problem of who guards the guards? Standardized security software makes these networks more vulnerable to a very skillful hacker, so this approach only works if the security software is constantly watched and upgraded.