Wired is out with a major cover story featuring NSA Contractor Edward Snowden (former) clutching a giant American flag. In it, Snowden uncovers information about an National Security Agency program known as MonsterMind, which, if true, can signal a huge step in how the U.S. government traces cyberattacks back to their sources.
MonsterMind can reportedly analyze incoming malware and block it, according to Wired. But the main power lies in MonsterMind's different capability: It's reportedly capable of hacking back at targets automatically:
Instead of simply detecting and killing the malware at the point of entry, MonsterMind would automatically fire back, with no human involvement.
The idea of a computer program that can fight back may sound like "Terminator"-level stuff. In reality, information security scholars say, it's rarely so simple.
The biggest drawback for governments waging fights on the net is the one of attribution — determinative who's accountable for associate degree attack. within the physical world, the laws of war need armies to wear badge that mark them as a legitimate target. In cyberspace, there aren't any such rules, creating it both logistically and technically difficult to seek out out WHO hit you. associate degree attack that initially appears to return from China may very well have originated in, say, Russia, with the attackers taking steps to confuse the victim on where they very area unit.
In 2012, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the govt. had made "significant investments" into the attribution problem which they were paying off.
"Potential aggressors should bear in mind that the u. s. has the capacity to locate them and to hold them in control of their actions which will try to harm America," Panetta told an audience of business executives in New York.
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