We speak of online private cyber-warfare (as I did here in regard to what I called cyber-booters), but real warfare requires more than hacking. Where will such refined skills be found?With so many private security outfits around, how long before they need to drum up business when contracts start to peter out or too many competitors eat at the profit margin?
And so perhaps a need to match potential warmakers with potential war fighters will be met with an online service. Call it warBay. Need a bridge blown up somewhere? Sign on to warBay and choose from local insurgents out to make a profit, renegade pilots from a poor Third World air force willing to drop a bomb for cash, or ex-SAS members who formed a company without current government contracts in need of some money. Or assassinate a leader. Or just kill a bunch of people who are of the designated race or religion. Or hire some special ops types to intercept another group you read on an Internet board are planning to hit your side's headquarters (church or whatever). Freelancers and idiots could hire themselves out like the Shoe Bomber or like Timothy McVeigh to ply their particular skill for money.
Whatever your war needs, there are people out there who can provide the service. More bang for the buck, to turn a phrase. And warBay will be there.
The longer this Long War drags on without the West winning, the more likely that private entities will wage war and the more likely some form of supporting infrastructure will arise to use the surplus fighting talent out there.
Strategypage writes of one online service already out there connecting cybercrooks with customers:
The "ammunition" in any Internet based warfare is information about current vulnerabilities in Internet software. These bugs are quickly patched, so the time between their discovery, and disappearance, is short (days, weeks, sometimes months.) The criminals who have access to this vulnerability information, have their hackers use it to get illegal software on PCs (to then control the computer, for use in spamming, storing stolen files, or making attacks on websites or, in wartime, enemy resources).
Police and Internet security companies have discovered secret web sites where Internet based criminal gangs sell, or even auction off, vulnerabilities.
Can the sale of direct action be far behind? The elements of Western private warfare are being developed as we speak, and the Westphalian system gets weaker every day.
