‘How about a Digital Blackwater?’ Former CIA, NSA Director Proposes Cyber Mercenaries
- Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:00pm by
Buck Sexton
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Has the time come for a Blackwater-style company to provide cyber warriors so the private sector can go on offense against online threats?
That is the provocative question raised at a recent meeting of the Aspen Security Forum by former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden. To sum in up in what he called a bumper sticker phrase, Hayden discussed the possibility that at some point in the future, the United States may allow the private sector leeway to engage in the cyber battle space apart from the government.
Hayden, a career intelligence professional, referenced the history of private sector entities providing for their own defense, particularly in commercial areas where the laws governing security have been murky. While he singled out private security contractors who have played an integral- and controversial- role in current U.S. conflicts abroad, other private enterprises such as armored car services and chemical plant protection illustrate the point as well.
Hayden’s comments were made in an already heightened climate of cyber security awareness. He mentioned China’s widely reported hacking of Google, and just a few months ago the Pentagon declared that a cyber attack could be construed as an act of war.
Hayden says that America is currently deciding the parameters of private sector online security efforts, and stated that he is not declaring his support for a “Cyber Blackwater.”
But as you watch the video below, you may get the sense that whether he agrees with it or not, Hayden sees private sector cyber mercenaries in the near future:
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Comments (38)
NoNWOnoWAY
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 5:59pmWhat, did blackwater figure out how to murder people over the internet now? probably have immunity there too….Wheee, get naked (with just other blackwater guys, ooooh), do pounds of coke, shoots some roids, shoot some real bullets out the hotel window and then hit the fire button a gajillion times on the cyber sheeple………just like Iraq…ahhh..the smell of bodies, just like mom used to make…………It just keeps getting gooder and gooder doesn’t it……..Is there a font big enough to use in the word LOSERS
Report Post »babylonvi
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 2:44pmWe already have one” Wikileaks
Report Post »Badjohnny
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 2:42pmThe hacking of corporate secrets has always been more valuable to criminals than intelligence secrets. The extent that the Govt goes to to prevent national secrets pales in comparison to the intellectual property and patent issues that business face. If you think that B2B communications aren’t already moving in this direction than you must be part of the Govt.
Report Post »trilipush
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:49amRead about STUXNET, the cyberworm! It is already happening to Iranian computers, destroying their ability to wreak havoc, anyplace in the world. Israel is responsible for saving America for a little longer!
Report Post »clingingtogodandguns
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 6:04amNo mamma Obummer said we need a civilian force as big as the gov’t force i guess this is the start.He said he’s been the private sector 3 years boy strange timing their, ya think.I can’t say it enough get you guns and ammo before their banned.
Report Post »Cuthalu
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 2:46amErrr ummm no thanks?
Report Post »GlennBeckFTW
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 1:54amMake your hard drive unbootable and fry your cpu
Report Post »Ron_WA
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:07pmThis has been going on for years … we just don’t openly have it happening.
Did anyone catch the way GEN/former Director of CIA Hayden phrased that? Hint, hint … he didn’t just pull that out of the air – replay his words; not only is it going on but he’s lobbying for Chairman of the Board.
Pay REAL good ATTENTION to this one people; this is the NEW BATTLEFIELD & will be the next Septmebr 11th / Pearl Harbor … you may loose your entire savings & official identity in a nanosecond …
Report Post »MUDFLAPS
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:15pmThere are dinks in the wire.
Report Post »Bill Wallace
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 5:11pmYou are a bigger idiot than I can even phrase if you think this isn’t already happening.
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:00pmGerman police have described radiation-firing full body scanners as “useless”, following a 10-month trial, during which time alarm was unnecessarily raised far too frequently.
The police report noted that the machines struggled to cope with layers of clothing, boots and zip fasteners.
In, addition, in 10 percent of cases the passenger’s posture set off the alarm.
The report concludes that the machines are too sensitive to movement and operate too slowly to be of any practical use. The federal authorities have no interest in carrying out more tests with the machines at this time.
Despite these findings, the Department of Homeland Security in the US plans to roll out hundreds more of the machines into airports across the country.
TSA head John Pistole and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano have consistently stated that the machine have passed rigorous safety and efficiency tests.
However, as we have repeatedly highlighted, the machines would not have prevented the 2009 Christmas Day bomber from boarding Flight 253, according to their designers, and other security experts who have dismissed the devices as “useless”.
The imaging machines cannot even detect explosive material, so claiming, as Napolitano does, that they are “our best defense against such threats” is misleading at best and at worst a complete lie.
The idea that the machines are effective flies in the face of the viewpoint of surveillance experts who note that the scanners will do noth
Report Post »Nepenthe
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 4:28pmSo, now Blackwater and their ilk are going to try and find ways to murder civilians through the internet?
Report Post »PATTY HENRY
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:23pmTHIS IS THE REASON we MUST have PATRIOTS in control of this country. WATCH this. IT’s OVER
Report Post »http://video.designworldonline.com/bugbots.html
Neo Con John
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 5:03pmAren’t these guys on our side?
Report Post »It’s an American company.
fliteking
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:05pmThis story is an obvious diversion.
Discussing this without a real story (to discuss) is like believing the MSM .
Report Post »Rachel Madcow
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:59pmgreat idea.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:52pm.
Report Post »Don‘t alot of these guys wear Underoo’s and live in their parents garage already?
Mustangdave
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:50pmDUH…this has been going on since the mid 90′s…at least…in the military we referred to it as INFORMATION WARFARE….
Report Post »h158x
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:32pmThe government runs our cyber defense? That explains everything.
Report Post »LiberalMarine
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:30pmBlackwater and the companies like it pretty much have already acted like mercenaries. Sucking up billions of dollars in the process. I’m in quantico right now and the foothold the private contractors have is pretty bad. They are getting paid about 4 times more than the military personell and doing the jobs we could do a lot of the time.
Report Post »fliteking
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:04pmMissed your point Chief.
Report Post »saviorammo
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:07pmAnd you have no idea what you are talking about. I have been at the Warfighting Lab myself and there are many specialized jobs that only a few at Quantico could handle or would accept. If you wish to make assuptions, go take a hike down XE’s facilities and see if you make it a day!
Most of the guys have 10yrs plus special ops experience. Hardly any do it for the money. They used to do it becuase the job would get done the right way, not the military way.
Win, at any cost! Rule 10
Report Post »fliteking
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:12pmLiberalMarine – Your comment seems to indicate you are not a real Marine or active in the military.
“Blackwater and the companies like it pretty much have already acted like mercenaries”
Specifically “pretty much have already acted like mercenaries”
My thoughts are an active military person would be strongly aware THESE COMPANIES ARE MERCENARY EMPLOYERS, HENCE MERCENARIES.
If my point is invalid I apologize, if not and you are not active military then you have no relevance.
Report Post »LiberalMarine
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 3:22pmI was trying to reply to the first post to the article.
I have known a number of people who get out to become contracotrs of all types SPECIFICALLY for the money.
Report Post »jeffyfreezone
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 4:18pmI read a book about Blackwater. It was written by a guy who seemed to hate all things I love. He’d describe these guys as right wing this and that. I thought it was hilarious that I took from the book inspiration and admiration for these guys, because I took into account the writer’s whacked out bias. I figured the writer must have lost a woman to one of these guys at some point, to harbor such animosity, he came across as a girly man lol. I sensed envy in him?
Report Post »V-MAN MACE
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:26pmHow about an unconstitutional “SuperCongress”?
A 12 member body who is handpicked by the Executive who basically votes to give power to the Executive?
TREASON!
GET YOUR GUNS OUT!
WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!
Report Post »GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 11:54pmYa, Vmace, I saw that too. Trying to post so some will pick up on it. All these distractions remind me of Monica and the DMCA/ China kickback slush fund. Where did the MSM take that.
Report Post »consrv
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:19pmabout time!!
Report Post »Drum Man
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:14pmSmoke and mirrors. we already have this…
Report Post »Mandors
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:20pmExactly. The question should be: Do we want to take existing intelligence and military employees and put them in the private sector where they can over charge us on a contract basis.
Report Post »Son_of_Liberty
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:13pm“What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Thomas Jefferson
3%
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:19pmWhy are’nt there 100,000 in the streets of Wash, protesting this Gov, ?
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:11pmI can‘t believe they already don’t have these types in their arsenal or at their disposal. To make it worse, why are they advertising the fact that they’re late to the part again???
There was a time when I believed our leaders to be supremely intelligent. Wow, what a dope I was, huh?
Report Post »Susan Harkins
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:06pm“Hayden discussed the possibility that at some point in the future, the United States may allow the private sector leeway to engage in the cyber battle space apart from the government.”
Hey Hayden….if this Facist Regime continues to merge Public and Private sectors, how will that ever be possible? You are living in a fantasy, my friend. The Private Sector will be an extention of the Govt.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:05pmI thought we already had these; we call them hackers, cyber criminals, government officials and all the like. Besides, is there not a provision in American law where mercenaries cannot be hired by the government?
Report Post »Goodgriefgeezlouise
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:39pmsounds like a good first socialist step toward eventual cyber spying on every man woman and child in this country..I know..I know..They already do this..But you bring in these guys and tell them they have a free hand and I bet they get over zealous and outta control at some point..
By saying this is to combat the big bad Chinese is a good way to get them in the door..Wait, I hear someone at the door!..They know I am typing this!..No!..No!…Someone Help me!!!!!…lol
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:50pm@GoodGrief — loved it, that is along the lines of someone setting at their PC and asking to themselves if the computer is bugged; then a voice says “No, just the plants…ignore that…”
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