Home On The Range Here In Mesa: Cyber Warfare

Somewhat surprised to see this article  on Al Jazeera by Creede Newton about a facility located here in Mesa appearing just two hours earlier
Cyber warfare: The new international warfront
Faced with increased cyber attacks, [ like just 2 days ago! ] US government is balancing attack on and defense from hackers and cyber criminals. . .

Whether the people in AZCWR are self-styled vigilantes or consider themselves some kind of "cyber militia" is a concern as well as the city's agreeing to lease the  building to them.

Mesa, Arizona - To enter the Arizona Cyber Warfare range (AZCWR), a person must have a signed waiver, the consent from the strict private security firm that guards the facilities, and the fortitude to withstand the salty language and messy environment created by the hackers inside.

"This is the only place in the world where the good guys can learn to hack from good guys who really know how to hack," Brett Scott, one of the founders of the AZCWR, told Al Jazeera inside their hacking headquarters.
The organisation is housed inside a complex that began as a research facility for top-secret military technology in the 1980s. The group has three missions: to educate the public on the merits of hacking by offering free courses, to change the realm of cyber-security for both the public and private sectors to gather, and to handle the enemies of the United States.

The "complex" referenced to is AZ Labs owned by the City of Mesa and located at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
More information can be found here on more than ten pages from the city's official web site.
AZCWR uses "bots", or computer programs that take advantage of thousands of computers across the planet, to lodge complaints against ISIL Twitter pages.

"Our net effect is taking down 1,000 accounts a day," Scott said. When asked how his cadre of hackers, none of whom speak Arabic, are able to find the accounts, Scott responded that the AZCWR is given tips from intelligence agencies across the globe.
There is an assortment of tasks, from the aforementioned take-down of an ISIL account to attacking, with consent, the cyber security systems of businesses.
Also, when a foreign adversary is not "paying enough attention" to the AZCWR for the group to gather intel, the hackers will "poke the bear", Scott said.

While The government wants a cyber campaign against ISIL and others who attack the state, they don't want to encourage "cyber militias" to mount attacks against enemies.
Scott has worked for various government agencies, and his experience with has left a bad impression. "The US has a very backwards idea towards hackers. Russia, China, and even ... countries like Iran are offering them huge amounts of money, luxurious cars, and nice flats."
In the US, Scott explained, hackers still face witch-hunts and harsh penalties when the government should offer employment. AZCWR is there to force decision-makers to re-evaluate their stance on technologically-capable but legally questionable computer users.
"World War III is already here, and it's happening on the internet," the hacker said.

On Friday and yesterday, there were major headlines about cyber attacks readers can see on http://www.ooyuz.com
A wave of digital publishers and other ecommerce players were hit by a cyber attack this morning, causing their sites in some parts of the United States to go out in a problem that's lingering into middle afternoon. According to DownDetector—check out its map above—the East Coast and Southern California have been hit the hardest while Western Europe also experienced outages.

Here's a YouTube video Streamed live on Oct 15, 2016

This presentation describes how we use botnets to meet the demands of range management with fault tolerance and unlimited processing

 

If anyone is curious about Dane Mullenix and a company business profile, here's a segment of  Mesa Morning Live from July 3, 2013.
Some of it is "top secret'

Alion Science and Technology Corporation is an technology solutions company delivering technical expertise and operational support to the United States Department of Defense, civilian government agencies and commercial customers. Wikipedia

Headquarters: McLean, VA

Revenue: 750 million USD

Founded: December 20, 2002

Subsidiaries: iv Alion-METI Corporation, v Alion CATI Corp, More

 

Website: alionscience.com 

 

 

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