> Did you see that all army.mil sites are currently offline?
>
In 1994 there were several areas of concern raised by some of us security types on
what should be on military web sites. Consideration being that it is not a single
incident which creates the problem - it is the accumulation of info, data, and
innocent snippets here and there which create the "leak".
The web sites started out with a very strict structure and with time the "lets be a
friendlier and progressive site" took over vigilance of information security. An
instance was the actual number of US military people and their locations in
Australia. One service site had every officer by name, title, location, contact
details, and their position. The reason was basically we want to show support --
however any one knowing about support programs and by contacting the individuals
could then figure out how of the other services were about, where Australian
installations and projects were located, etc.
Industrial espionage is probably the more often the cause of secret leaks than a
blabber. The quest for info that gives one industry an edge over the other is a
very serious business. For those who worked in secure areas remember shredding or
burning of typewriter ribbons (esp the nylon IBM type) to ensure that they were not
read after being picked up in the trash. Complete movements of troops and supplies
have been determined by industrial spies analysing things like how many rolls of
toilet paper, fresh/combat rations, petrol stock ups, leasing of commo land lines,
and other seemingly irrelevant items were procured and their storage location.
Data mining is a big business and with the right data pays more than any gold mine.
Terry Swarner
ex-army.mil type
Internet/Intranet Solutions