The Morgan Doctrine: Perfect Virus Score Card: NSA-Brit "Regin" Rains Rancid Reign

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Perfect Virus Score Card: NSA-Brit "Regin" Rains Rancid Reign

In March of this year, I added the Russian "Snake" to my last virus score card (see it here). Thanks to today's New York Times story (read it here) referencing Symantec's paper published Sunday (read it here), following is my best estimate of the new "Regin" virus capability as measured against my criteria for the Perfect Virus (read all 22 Principles of the Perfect Virus here):

The good news? This joint US-British effort appears to be a typical government/state-developed piece of bloat-ware that assumes anything worth stealing can be accessed from a Windows environment. Hence, forget about seamless migration (#5), black box portability (#7), no common denominator (#10), and universalization (#18). Net net, government employees and beltway bandit contractors really aren't the best and brightest.

The bad news, however, continues to snowball:

If you're using Windows in any form, you're basically hosed.
If you attempt any aggressive defense against intruders, you're probably going to get hosed repeatedly by one or more cell mates in prison.
This cyberwar escalation can only prompt Mr. Putin to somehow demonstrate to the world that Russia can trump Regin (heaven forbid the U.S. power grid will be a target on Christmas Eve).
With a formal policy of letting the U.S. "fox" guard the henhouse, there is little hope a modern-day Tony Stark will invoke the U.S. Constitution's Article 1 Section 8 clause to become a licensed/bonded cyber privateer and take a victory lap around the Senate proclaiming, "I have successfully privatized world cyber security!"
You really don't want to be driving a car controlled by a Windows-based computer

Hence, we are the equivalent of Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie, sending Obi Wan (see the YouTube clip here) an SOS: "Help us Israel; you're our only hope."

Yep, Israel—the most attacked country in the world—has nothing to lose and everything to gain by monetizing world-wide Internet security. They could make it extremely risky to attack anybody. Heck, I'd buy a you-hack-me-and-I'll-sic-the-Mossad-on-you insurance policy. Shalom, momma!

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Implementation suggestions for THE MORGAN DOCTRINE are most welcome. What are the "Got'chas!"? What questions would some future Cyber Privateering Czar have to answer about this in a Senate confirmation hearing?

Background: Welcome black hats, white hats and cyber swashbucklers

The Revolutionary War was fought, financed, and pretty well WON by bonded privateers, legalized pirates who were given Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Continental Congress and authorized to attack, capture and monetize British ships. The purpose of this site is to explore the possibility of a modern-day doctrine much like the Monroe Doctrine, by means of which the U.S. government could legally and, more importantly, effectively stop international hackers. Current cybercrime law is not only ineffective, but downright stupid. My Linux servers are attacked hundreds of times a day (mostly from China and former USSR domains), yet if I retaliate against those servers with some creative technology at my disposal (I know some VERY smart guys), then I am in violation of federal law and subject to some onerous penalties. We need more than a new law. We need a new international doctrine. I call it The Morgan Doctrine, named after Morgan Rapier, a fictional character I've created (hey, this is my way of establishing ownership of the concept, should it ever see the light of day).

Why a new international doctrine? Simply, nothing else will work. Introduced on December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine told the world to keep their hands off the Americas. Combine this with current legal thinking on "hot pursuit" of fugitives. In 1917 the US Army went into Mexico after Pancho Villa. More recently, in 1960 Israeli Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Granted, much of the world regards the Eichmann adventure as a violation of international law. I don't share that opinion and therefore use it as the third leg of my Monroe-Pancho-Aldof platform for The Morgan Doctrine.

If someone comes into your home and attacks or attempts to rob you, you may shoot them dead. You may do so as long as they expire on your property. But what about cyber criminals? They attack you in your home from their homes. Retaliate in kind, and you go to jail. The Morgan Doctrine states simply that if you attack my computers (or my banking assets held in US-based computers), then under a certain set of well-defined conditions, a licensed and bonded "cyber privateer" may attack you in your home country and split the proceeds with the U.S. government. For the sake of argument, let's call it a 50-50 split (heh heh).

Right now, American law enforcement is completely unequipped to deal with the sheer number international cyber hackers. Sure, I could report each of the thousand daily attacks to the FBI, as could the millions of other attackees in the USA. But the volume of such reports would make any meaningful resolution laughable. Not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction outside the USA. Yet to make such "enforcement" profitable to recognized (ie, "bonded" "deputized") privateers, as Heath Ledger's Joker said in his last role, "Now you're talking!" You raid our bank accounts, we raid yours. You make money from off-shore child pornography, we're going to loot your bank accounts and, with some REALLY creative black hat operations, you will be taken off the grid worldwide to the extent that you'll not even complete a cell phone conversation for the remainder of your miserable depraved life. Okay, that last part probably won't fly, but you get my drift.

The purpose of this site is to explore the mechanics, legalities and practicality of The Morgan Doctrine.

And I will be the sole arbiter of whether or not your comments get posted. As Mel Brooks wrote, "It's good to be king."