Thursday, May 16, 2019

You Have to Respect Traditional Means

This cracked me up:

As part of a larger operation that Israel conducted in response to rocket attacks from Gaza the first weekend in May, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) thwarted a Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli targets. Israel’s response did not stop at using digital means to turn back Hamas’ cyber assault. The IDF targeted and demolished a building where the Hamas cyber operatives worked. “Hamas no longer has cyber capabilities after our strike,” said IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, a statement that indicates Israel’s concerns in responding to Hamas included the terror organization’s use of cyber-warfare. ...

Israel’s response marks the first time that a country has used immediate military force to destroy a foe’s cyber capability in an active conflict. [emphasis added]

It cracks me up because I think we focus too much on the cyber part of "cyber warfare" and not enough on the warfare part:

In the past I've noted that we can't get so caught up in the mystique of cyber-warfare that we forget that a JDAM dropped on an office building filled with enemy hackers is probably a more straightforward way of dealing with their offensive efforts than equivalent hacking back at them.

If you know where they are, just kill them. Dead cyber operators can't hack. Israel realizes this. Do we?