Intellectual Property Law

DARPA Creating Fake Internet Complete With Fake N00B Users

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

The Pentagon's masters of future research want to build a model of the internet, complete with replicant users uploading sneezing panda videos and downloading fake codecs that join their Windows ME boxes to zombie computer armies, THREAT LEVEL's sister blog Danger Room reports.

The idea of DARPA's National Cyber Range is to create a testing environment for cyber warfare research where military cyber-warriors can test new defenses, try new attacks and develop whole new protocols and network architectures. It's just one small part of the fed's new found, $30 billion interest in cyber security.

e-War Games, for short. With replicants.

Here's a short bit on the project's goals:

• The ability to replicate large-scale military and government network enclaves.
• The ability to replicate commercial and tactical wireless and control systems.
• The ability to connect to distributed, custom facilities and/or capabilities as necessary to incorporate specialized capabilities, effects, or infrastructures.
• Interactive test suites to design, configure, monitor, analyze, and release tests.
• The ability to rapidly generate and integrate replications of new machines.
• The ability to integrate new research protocols.
• A test toolkit/repository for reuse of recipes and architectures.
• Forensic quality data collection, analysis, and presentation.
• Realistically replicate human behavior and frailties.
• Realistic, sophisticated, nation-state quality offensive and defensive opposition forces.
• The ability to accelerate and decelerate relative test time.
• A malware repository.

Malware repository? Hmm, I can just imagine some teenager telnetting into the National Cyber Range. NCR asks him if he would like to play a game, and that teenager chooses Global Cybarmageddon! instead of chess.

On a side note, DARPA tried something like this before when it was running Admiral John Poindexter's future terrorism spotting project, Total Information Awareness program, where they created an entire world of fake people buying and selling fake things, calling their fake friends and visiting fake dentists who filled fake cavities. They called it Vanilla World. THREAT LEVEL tried to get information on Vanilla World via a Freedom of Information Act request in 2003, but five years later, DARPA is still illegally withholding the information.

THREAT LEVEL is fascinated by the National Cyber Range.

But may we suggest that the first step in creating a secure, future internet might start by issuing their Requests for Proposals in a format other than the notoriously unsecure and proprietary Microsoft Word format.

In fact, here is DARPA's National Cyber Range proposal translated into PDF format.

Can THREAT LEVEL have some of that grant money, now please?

See Also:

• What's Up with the Secret Cybersecurity Plans, Senators Ask DHS
• US Has Launched a Cyber Security 'Manhattan Project,' Homeland Security Chief Says
• Air Force Cyber Command Gives Away the Goods
• Democratic Lawmaker Vouches for Bush Administration's Secret Plan to End Cyber War
• Air Force Launches Recruitment Campaign Touting Cyber Command
• The Battle for the Cyber Command
• NSA Must Examine All Internet Traffic to Prevent Cyber Nine-Eleven ...

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).