SANS ISC: Cyber Warfare and Kylin thoughts

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SANS ISC InfoSec Forums

I believe that most of our readers heard about the Kylin OS.

This is suppose to be the super Chinese Operating system, designed to be US-proof...in other words, an OS that would make the US cyber-warfare tactics useless. More here on the Post article.

My personal opinion is that it is a huge hype on this.
First, Kylin is available for download, (Kylin 2.1.1a at kylin.org.cn ) and if this is the one being used by China to be their secure OS, or better yet, a US-Cyber-Warfare-bullet-proof, then there may be some problems...

The kernel OS is nothing more than our well known FreeBSD, with linux binary compatibility .
Second, Secure OSs are not something new, if we remember that SE-Linux was also funded by NSA.
Third, a Chinese OS shouldn't be US's main concern on Cyber Warfare...(more on this on the end of this diary).

Cyber Warfare is definitely a broad topic. In a simpler way, we can think as the way to reach a state or the state's critical infrastructure. It may include network penetration, DDoS, remote sabotage of critical infrastructure and "more".
Also, remember that there is no more range or defined battlespace.

If we think of the 4th generation warfare, it is even more complex, since it is not a formal war like Iran x Iraq anymore...now it is more like Israel x Hamas, or Pro-Palestine groups x NATO, or even PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army) x HMG ( Hindu Militant Group )...

Now, back on the Kylin story...do you really believe that we should be worried about the Chinese OS, when our Military and Government networks are vulnerable to worms that exploits PATCHED vulnerabilities and open shares??

My talk at SANSFire in Baltimore is called "Malwares, Money and Criminal/Terror Activity. The Dangerous Relationship", where I will cover some of these Cyber Warfare topics and more. If you plan to come, it will be on June 17th.

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Pedro Bueno - pbueno && isc // .sans // .org
http://twitter.com/besecure