Inside Plan X:The Pentagon’s plan for cyberweapon central
五角大楼的X计划：世界进入网络战争时代？
New publication from the Pentagon's research arm details a foundation for cyberwarfare.
Heart of program is a digital map of the cyberlandscape
Experts see not cyberwar but smaller skirmishes against industrial facilities, businesses
Read more: “ Foundational Cyberwarfare (Plan X)”
It’s called Plan X, and it makes one thing very clear: Cyberwar is the future.
On Nov. 20, Pentagon research arm DARPA -- short for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- released a document called “ Foundational Cyberwarfare (Plan X), ” a 52-page outline of how to fight a cyberwar. Its heart is a new map of cyberspace, a real-time rendering of the world of computers and how they connect -- switches, bridges, nodes and so on. It then seeks “support platforms” that can deploy cyberweapons, measure damage, strengthen defenses and communicate.
“The Department of Defense (DoD) has developed superior capabilities over decades in the physical domains of land, sea, air, and space, ” the document explains. “When called upon, the U.S. military must have equally superior capabilities to rapidly plan, execute, and assess the full spectrum of military operations in cyberspace.”
These range from espionage against private industry to attacks like the Stuxnet worm that hit Iran’s nuclear efforts in 2010. And it’s the new world of warfighting, said Andrew Serwin, a member of the advisory board of the Naval Post Graduate School's Center for Asymmetric Warfare and an expert on cyberwarfare.
“You’re at a time where large physical war is winding down, and that physical domain is giving way to the cyberdomain, ” Serwin told FoxNews.com.
He believes the document is evidence of a shift in focus for the Department of Defense. The agency is unlikely to fight a major “cyberwar” -- if such a thing could ever really take place -- instead eyeing the security holes posed by corporations and infrastructure.
In other words, while a hostile nation is unlikely to drop an A-bomb on Arkansas, they might hire someone to attack the computers governing the water supply.
“When does a cyberattack become cyberwar?” Serwin asked. “Is there really a distinction if you kill a bunch of people via a cyberattack, something you do to their water supply, versus if you drop a bomb on them? The threat vectors are no longer something the public sector can control.”
Roy Hadley, a partner at law firm Barnes & Thornburg where he heads the cybersecurity practice, pointed as evidence to the 2010 dust-up between Google and China. It’s widely believed that Chinese hackers compromised the Web giant’s servers, leading Google to seek government support.
“If Google doesn’t have the resources to withstand a cyberattack, probably very few companies in the United States will have that capability, ” he told FoxNews.com.
DARPA’s Plan X could be seen as support in this critical area. The document is a public request for proposals on a variety of topics, from mapping networks to deploying weapons; DARPA sources, stressing that it will not fund new cyberweapons, say it has a five-year, $110 million timeline.
“The Plan X program seeks to integrate the cyber battlespace concepts of the network map, operational unit and capability set in the planning, execution, and measurement phases of military cyber operations, ” DARPA sources told FoxNews.com.
The heart of Plan X is a new graphical view of cyberspace not unlike a large-scale computer game -- "World of Warcraft" for the Army -- showing ongoing operations and real-time networking data.
“The cyber battlespace graphing engine is the core of the Plan X system. The graphing engine’s primary task is to receive, store, model, retrieve and send cyber battlespace information to other Plan X system components, ” the document reads.
Before its cyberarmy is fully equipped, the Pentagon hopes to develop a “playbook” like that a football coach employs or the flight plan for an airplane.
"Planners may develop specific and unique ‘plays’ to assist in planning future missions. This concept is similar to a football playbook that contains specific plays developed for specific scenarios, ” Plan X reads.
Once the Pentagon has built this map, It plans facilitates to coordinate the defense, an on-site "collaborative research space" in Arlington, Va., for staff with secret security clearance.
"Representatives from the Armed Forces will work directly with DARPA and the research teams at the Collaborative Research Space, " DARPA program manager Dan Roelker told FoxNews.com.
These facilities, the playbook, the new maps and cyberdefenses may help support the weak points in the country: the private sector, Serwin told FoxNews.com.
“The reality is, it’s a lot easier to attack the private sector than it is to attack the DoD network or the CIA network, ” he said.
五角大楼正在打造一项22世纪的战争计划：他们正在搭建一个新的系统来为网络空间里的数字化战场“绘制地图”，规划网络战武器系统部署战术，并选定弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的一处基地作为他们的总部来整合所有这一切。
该计划被称为X计划，他向人们清楚地表明一件事：未来将是网络战争的时代。
11月20日，五角大楼研究分支机构（高级防御研究计划部（DARPA））解密了一篇名为《网络战框架（X计划）》的文案。这篇长达52页的文案勾勒出了如何打网络战的框架。该文案的核心内容是一张网络战地空间的新型地图，它能实时反映世界各地电脑的位置及他们的连接方式，比如直接连接、桥接、节点连接等等。不仅如此，该计划还寻求建立一个能够部署网络战武器、评估战争损耗、巩固防御体系并交流信息的“支持平台”。
“在过去的几十年里，国防部（DoD）在现实世界的陆地、海洋、天空和太空中已经发展出具有绝对优势的军事能力，”该文案中提到，“一旦需要，在网络空间里，美军也必须像在现实世界中一样，具备快速计划、执行并全方位评估军事行动的优势力量。”
网络战专家，海军研究生院不对称战中心理事会成员之一的安德鲁•瑟文（Andrew Serwin）解释道：这涵盖的内容很广，从对私有制造业的监视到对实施现实打击，就像2010年攻击伊朗核计划的超级蠕虫病毒（Stuxnet）那样。而这是战争的一个全新领域。
“我们处在一个大规模实体战争正逐渐消亡的时代，而现实世界的势力范围正逐渐被网络空间上的势力范围所取代。”瑟文如是说。
他认为该文案的提出，是国防部战略重心转移的一个佐证。高级防御研究计划部不太可能真的打一场“网络战争”——如果这种事真的发生的话——他们更可能着眼于弥补各大公司和各项基础设施的安全漏洞。
换句话说，虽然敌对国家不太可能往阿拉斯加仍颗原子弹，但他们很可能会雇佣黑客攻击政府的供水系统。
“网络攻击什么时候会演变成网络战争？”瑟文提出，“通过网络攻击破坏供水系统而害死一些人与朝他们头上仍炸弹究竟有多大的区别？公众对战略威慑的传统理解已经过时了。”
Barnes &Thornburg律师事务所的合伙人，负责网络安全方面官司的罗伊•哈德雷（Roy Hadley）举了2010年谷歌和中国的纠纷作为例证。很多人都认为中国黑客导致网络服务器瘫痪使得谷歌不得不寻求政府的支持。他说道，“如果谷歌（Google）公司都没有足够的资源来控制网络攻击，那么美国可能没有什么公司能干这件事了。”
高级防御研究计划部的X计划将会在上述关键领域发挥作用。该计划文案实际上是在面向大众征求从网络战地地图的绘制到武器部署等多种问题的解决措施。而据计划部内部人士透露，鉴于资源有限（5年1.1亿美元），他们并不能投入资金来研发新型网络武器。
该内部人士介绍到：“X计划旨在寻求网络战争概念地图、计划运行单元和容量、执行力以及军队网络运行阶段测评等多方面的整合。”
对军队而言，X计划实质上是一种图解网络空间的全新视角，就像广域电脑游戏“魔兽世界”一样，能同时显示现行任务和实时联网数据。
X计划的文案中这样写道：“网络战争空间的图像引擎是X计划系统的核心。图像引擎的主要任务是接收、存储、建立模型、实体还原并把网络战争空间中的相关信息发送到X计划系统中其他部门。”
在网络部队完全建立之前，五角大楼希望能够开发出一种战术图，就像橄榄球教练排兵布阵时或战机群实施打击时所用的那样。
X计划文案中还提到：“计划制定者可以开发出有针对性且独特的‘玩儿法’来帮助计划未来的军事行动。这个概念就和橄榄球的战术图一样，它包含了针对某种特殊情况而制定的特殊计划。”
五角大楼一旦建立起了这张网战地图，将在坐落于弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的“合作研究机构”中首先使用，以配合其防御系统，因为那里面的工作人员都配有特殊加密的出入证。
该计划负责人丹•罗艾克透露：“三军代表将直接参与高级防御研究计划部和合作研究机构的工作。”
“上述这些装备——战术图、网战地图和网络空间防御——将会有助于巩固我国防御体系中的薄弱环节，即私营工业。”，瑟文介绍道。
“现实是：与国防部或联邦调查局的网络相比，私营工业更容易受到网络攻击。” |
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