The Pentagon’s plan to outsource lethal cyber-weapons by Violet Blue.
From the post:
The Pentagon has quietly put out a call for vendors to bid on a contract to develop, execute and manage its new cyber weaponry and defense program. The scope of this nearly half-billion-dollar “help wanted” work order includes counterhacking, as well as developing and deploying lethal cyberattacks — sanctioned hacking expected to cause real-life destruction and loss of human life.
In June 2016, work begins under the Cyberspace Operations Support Services contract (pdf) under CYBERCOM (United States Cyber Command). The $460 million project recently came to light and details the Pentagon’s plan to hand over its IT defense and the planning, development, execution, management, integration with the NSA, and various support functions of the U.S. military’s cyberattacks to one vendor.
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Violet’s post will bring you up to date on discussions of cyber-weapons and where a large number of questions remain, such as what law governs cyber-weapons.
It isn’t clear how worried anyone should be at this point because the Pentagon is following its traditional acquisition process for cyber-weapons. Had the Pentagon started hiring top name exploit merchants and hackers, the danger of cyber-weapons would be imminent.
Traditional contracting process? We may have quantum computing long before cyber-weapons from the traditional process post a threat to then outdated software.
But in all events, do read and pass Violet’s post along.