Thursday, September 27, 2012

Who has "Black Box Virus Portability?"

Today's New York Times article—Cyberwarfare Emerges From Shadows for Public Discussion by U.S. Officials (read it here)—seems to have done a credible job summarizing a growing public discussion about government involvement in cyberwarfare. The problem however, is the underlying assumption that only government-level resources are fit to play this game. From the only intelligent individual quoted in the article:
Matthew Waxman, a law professor at Columbia and former Defense Department official, said speaking openly about cyberwarfare policy was important because it allowed the United States to make clear its intentions on a novel and fast-emerging form of conflict.
Professor Waxman essentially makes my point about a publicly stated "DOCTRINE" for cyberwar. Unfortunatey, in the context of the current governments-only mindset, this translates to playing with our hands tied behind our backs. Whereas licensed and bonded cyber privateers operating under strict government authority would be the only viable answer.

Which brings me to my question of the day: Who has "Black Box Virus Portability?" As I have stated in my 22 Principles for the Perfect Virus (see here),  the HOLY GRAIL of the Perfect Virus is Principle #7 (see here, upon which I articulated almost two years ago), BLACK BOX PORTABILITY. Because it DEFINITELY DOES take government-level resources to build an alien architecture that's immune to "grokking" by technology that assumes it knows what it is going up against). So my budding cyber privateers, does anyone have black box portability?

My answer: "No government has it." To be sure, at least two governments probably DO HAVE black box architectures engineered for Cyber Armageddon (the U.S. and China), but I don't believe they've cracked the Piers Anthony Macroscope code to infiltrating another black box. I also believe that they are "sniffing" for black boxes in the wild, because they'd be crazy not to. Finally, the odds are non-trivial that at least one private party HAS achieved black box virus portability. Further, I'm betting that this party is hiding in plain sight and (hopefully) has altruistic motives. Maybe like riding in on a big white cyberhorse and stopping the inevitable all-out cyberwar cold.

I know. I'm such an optimistic sucker.
 

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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?