No Worries? Here In Mesa > AZ Cyber Warfare Range

A simple definition of Cyber Warfare would be ‘ the use of hacking or other unethical methods to attack a specific target on the internet, with an aim to cause disruption or damage’ but the vast scope of this topic cannot be restricted to this simple sentence because it makes it rather problematic. The ethical standpoints? How can one become a target in a virtual world? What damages are we talking about?

The internet, like any society, is characterized by political rivalry – which is perhaps the largest area of Cyberwarfare.
It is marked by the actions and reactions of a nation-state or an international organization, who are at constant rivalry and attempt to disrupt and damage each other’s networks
just take a look at the incredible amount or records leaked in 2016 in this chart: 3.1 billion records leaked in data breaches and cyber attacks in 2016
Source: https://infogr.am/
This was a news story six days ago on KJZZ
Hackers Take Aim At The Arizona Cyber Warfare Range

By  Matthew Casey 

Published: Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 5:00am

Updated: Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 2:13pm

Source: KJZZ

Budding hackers huddle in a secure, windowless room as they gulp energy drinks and munch on pizza. Their job is to unleash cyber attacks on the millions of dollars worth of computer equipment at the Arizona Cyber Warfare Range. The goal is to break the gear, so they can learn how to protect it.

“In order to defend yourself from cyber attacks, you need to know the methods and techniques that cybercriminals are utilizing in programs to help defend yourself,” said Joshua Harp, who’s volunteered for years at the Range.

• Russian hackers tried to influence the 2016 presidential election.
• The Chinese may have stolen millions of Social Security numbers.
• Experts warn incidents like these show the United States is losing the cyberwar.

The Arizona Cyber Warfare Range is a Mesa-based nonprofit seeking to turn the tide by training warriors to defend against hacks. 
Operational Partners include AZ Labs leased from and owned by the City of Mesa, ACTRA AZ and several more coming soon.
On June 23, 2011, the Mesa, AZ City Council approved an Interim Lease with the United States Air Force for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and a property management/business assistance agreement with Alion Science and Technology. 
AZ Labs retains the security protocols of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, in Mesa, AZ.
AZ Labs can support a broad range of sensitive projects, including conferences, workshops, experiments, prototype evaluations, distributed test and training with access to a highly skilled, DoD-focused workforce. AZ Labs the freedom to innovate in privacy.
Privacy is provided in the form of secure workspaces with access to restricted airspace, ideally positioned to accommodate the sensitive research programs.                

AZ Labs can support a broad range of sensitive projects, including conferences, workshops, experiments, prototype evaluations, distributed test and training with access to a highly skilled, DoD-focused workforce.

- Dane Mullenix, Director on http://www.azlabs.org/

AZ Labs is managed by Alion Science and Technology for the City of Mesa, AZ.
Alion is a technology solution company delivering technical expertise & operational support to the Department of Defense, civilian government agencies & commercial customers.
Visit the Alion website for more details - www.alionscience.com

LOCATION
Adjacent to Arizona State University Polytechnic campus, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, & Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Mesa.
Close proximity to existing restricted airspace, & Military Operation Areas
Three 10,000-plus ft. runways, taxiways, parking aprons, & DoD fueling station within half mile

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features and Capabilities

The Arizona Laboratories for Security and Defense Research (AZLabs) is a full-service research facility, well suited for hosting sensitive research projects.
Encompassing 92,000 sq. ft., AZLabs can support a broad range of sensitive projects, including conferences, workshops, experiments, prototype evaluations, distributed test & training with access to a highly skilled DoD-focused workforce.
FACILITY FEATURES

• Engineered to the highest security standards
• Fabrication & welding shops onsite
• Access to robust fiber infrastructure that is secured, has high-bandwidth voice & data communications
• 24/7 onsite security
• Office furnishings
• Housekeeping, groundskeeping, maintenance
• Space for 250 scientists/researchers

AZ Labs has the potential to be the economic center of security and defense research not only for the East Valley but for the entire State of Arizona.

Now back to the KJZZ where it continues
But laws, like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, make learning how to hack risky, Harp said.
The Range, with its cyber targets, gives people a place to gain these skills without threat of prosecution. It’s an educational environment.
“If I was doing what I did here, without the sanctions that I receive through here, it would mean prison time for me,” Harp said to KLZZ's reporter.

Cyberwar adversaries have a different approach to hackers, Harp said. They encourage them.
“Russians want to go to prison for the cybercrimes they commit because that means the Russian government will come to them with a job offer,” Harp said. “In China, if you show aptitude with computers, then you show aptitude to be part of their hacking team."
The Arizona Cyber Warfare Range works with about 5,000 hackers. Their skill levels vary from beginner to Jedi. A good cyberwarrior is a problem-solver and an adaptive thinker, said Range co-founder, Brett L. Scott. [seen on the right]

“Even though everybody says, ‘Oh my God hackers, big scary monster.’ The bottom line is we are an unclassified entity that allows people to come in and learn critical skill sets,” Scott said.
Scott started programming computers when he was 6 years old. His career path eventually led him into cybersecurity, and it wasn’t long before the FBI and Secret Service started coming to his lectures.
“I began assisting Uncle Sam with complex questions that they were not able to obtain answers to, but I had first-hand knowledge of,” Scott said.
By outlawing hacking, Scott said the government keeps cybersecurity professionals from understanding the weapons used against them. He warns that future generations face competition against technology that was invented here but may be stolen by other countries. 
“We are doomed if we do not very quickly generate a capable set of cyberwarriors to change our destiny,” Scott said.

The mood inside the Range doesn’t always reflect the high stakes Scott described. Inappropriate jokes are common. Sometimes the hackers act more like rowdy frat boys than stereotypical computer nerds.
Volunteer Joyce Vogt is one of the few women around. She puts up with this behavior because, at the Range, she can let her skillset shine.

“These guys are cowboys, right? For me, it’s really reinforced that I really like going into environments that are lacking in civility and lacking in structure," Vogt said. "And then standing up structure as part of my work."
There are lots of ways to hack a government, and public-private partnerships are particularly vulnerable, said Vogt, who owns a data analytics firm and a cybersecurity company, which grew out of her work at the Range.
“I think there is just a general attitude of, ‘It hasn’t happened to me. Who am I? Who’s going to want to hack into my network?’” Vogt said.
Cyberdefense is typically reactive. Yet the Range’s founders have compiled a list of global cyberthreats and built a proactive defense network. Vogt and her team plan to bring that to market. Because they think it’s the cybersecurity model that will play out in the next three to five years.
“Any traffic that’s accessing a network — we can run that against the larger database to be able to determine, ‘Is this already a known threat?' 'Cause if it is, we should stop them at the door,” Vogt said.

On Twitter > https://twitter.com/azcwr
Website: http://azcwr.org/
On Google+ https://plus.google.com/communities/109709683526296474584

Cyber Warfare in 2017

PART 1 of 3: The invisible Global Wild West

A Story in The Making

If you look back at the greatest inventions made in the last few decades, none becomes as significant as the internet.

Originally developed to help the progress of computer technology, the internet has since then, crossed numerous milestones of information and resource availability, communication, commerce, entertainment and globalization as a whole.

What if this online space is turned into a battleground, a space for aggressive attack and damage, misused by different players as a part of rivalry?

 

Techno Thirst

Tesla Energy is Getting Serious – A Battery Powered World?

SURE, why not?

10-Page Agenda for Mesa City Council Meeting 20 March 2017

City Council Meeting Information and Agendas
Go here >> http://www.mesaaz.gov/city-hall/mayor-council
The Mesa City Council believes that its people, not leaders, are what makes a City great and actively works to encourage citizen participation in the decision-making process. Whether it is through neighborhood meetings, advisory boards and committees, telephone calls and letters, or email, the Mesa City Council sets policies based on the input and needs of its citizens. Mesa operates under a charter form of government with citizens electing a mayor and six councilmembers to set policy for the City.
Agendas can be found using this link >>
Council. Board and Committee Research Center
http://mesa.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx




Here's just two of the action items on the Consent Agenda
ITEM *4-j 17-0294
Total contract award = $169,646.09
Purchase to Upgrade Computer Disk-Based Storage for the Police Department as requested by the Information Technology Department (Citywide)
Based on the growth of electronic information needs within the Police Department, both from new project initiatives, as well as, normal annual data storage increases from operations, there is an immediate need to expand computer disk-based storage capacity.  Stop-gap measures have been implemented to control growth, but additional capacity is now needed to ensure recoverability of critical data.
The Information Technology and Police Departments, and Purchasing recommend authorizing the purchase using State of Arizona cooperative contracts and the lowest-quoted vendors, Transource Services Corp, at $83,893.32 and Custom Storage (cStor), at $1,859.55; for a combined total of $85,752.87.
Link http://mesa.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?m=l&id=/matter.aspx?key=10422 


ITEM *4-k 17-0312
Purchase of Replacement IT Security Management Software for the Information Technology Department (Citywide)
The software will prevent any direct access to our critical servers by outside threats. 
The current platform is on extended support with its manufacturer and has not received new functionality for several years.  It is running on aging server hardware that has reached its planned retirement date.
The Information Technology Department and Purchasing recommend authorizing the purchase from the Maricopa County cooperative contract and lowest quoted vendor, SHI at $81,658.58.
Link http://mesa.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?m=l&id=/matter.aspx?key=10440
 

Stingray [Surveillance Technology Documentary]

Published on Feb 13, 2017

They're used by police, federal officials and hackers. They can read your text messages, see where you are and more. They go by many names but some know them as Stingrays. But what is a Stingray? Dive into the world of surveillance technology.

Facebook.com/StingrayFilm

Official Selection of the Direct Monthly Online Film Festival
Winner of a Student Production Award at the Rocky Mountain Regional Emmys

Why America's Enemies Fear the AH-64E “Guardian” Helicopter?

See new $3.4 contract details after opening comments

Published on Jan 28, 2017

Views: 65,631

The U.S. Army will spend billions of dollars over the next decade to upgrade its iconic Apache helicopters to the latest—and most likely, last—variant, the AH-64E “Guardian.” Already battle-tested in Afghanistan, the Apache Guardian reflects the latest trends in U.S. military doctrine—namely improved response and loiter time, interoperability with drones, and the capability to engage maritime targets.

The Apache stands amongst a number of weapon systems such as the M1 Abrams tank and the F-15E Strike Eagle that entered service in the 1980s and proved their mettle in the 1991 Gulf War. Apaches fired the first shots of that conflict took out Iraqi low-band radars with Hellfire missiles, clearing the way for the initial strikes by F-117 stealth fighters. A total of 277 Apaches were deployed in the conflict, claiming the destruction of 278 Iraqi tanks as well as numerous so other targets—a high “rate of return” by the standards of most weapons systems. Only one Apache was lost in combat.

Attack helicopters are responsive and relatively precise means of unleashing heavy firepower where it’s needed most—but unlike main battle tanks or jet fighters, even an armored helicopter is vulnerable to low-tech machine guns, antiaircraft cannons and even rocket-propelled grenades, let alone surface-to-air missiles. In later conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, AH-64s continued to prove their deadly effectiveness, but couldn’t avoid losses from ground fire, including during an infamous raid against the Iraqi Medina Division that a strike group of thirty-one Apaches badly shot up by heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons.

The AH-64E (AH-64D Block III) is an upgraded version of the original AH-64A, which was developed for the US Army, to replace the AH-1 Cobra. The Apache helicopter saw combat during a number of recent wars.
The Apache Guardian is fitted with a mast mounted antenna with updated Longbow fire control radar. This attack helicopter can fire Hellfire 2 air-to-ground missiles in fire-and-forget mode. Other improvements include targeting, battle management system, cockpit, communications, weapons and navigation systems. The gunship is also fitted with a 30-mm cannon.
Deliveries of the Apache Guardian began to the US Army in 2011. A total of 634 AH-64D helicopters will be be upgraded to the AH-64E standard. This attack helicopter was approved for export. It is also in service with Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. India, Indonesia, Iraq and South Korea ordered this helicopter.

$3.4Bn Contract for 268 AH-64E Apache Helicopters

First ''E'' model multi-year contract ensures readiness, cost savings
Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. government recently signed a five-year, $3.4 billion contract through which the Army, and a customer outside the U.S., will acquire the latest Apache attack helicopter at a significant savings to taxpayers.
This is the first multi-year agreement for the Apache “E” variant. The Army will receive 244 remanufactured Apaches while 24 new ones will go to the international customer, Saudi Arabia.
"This agreement is great news for our Army, our soldiers, the American taxpayers, our industry partners and numerous international partners,” said U.S. Army Col. Joseph Hoecherl, the Apache project manager. “It is a direct result of the professional dedication and diligent efforts by government and industry teammates to provide the much needed capabilities of the world's best attack helicopter - the AH-64E Apache - at a fair and affordable price that results in year over year savings to the taxpayer. In the hands of our trained U.S. soldiers, the Apache's technologies and resulting capabilities are essential to Army operations around the globe."
Boeing builds the Apache here in Mesa.
Deliveries of the “E” model began in October 2011.
Seven customers outside the U.S. have ordered this variant. Including this latest version, the U.S. and 15 other countries have relied on the Apache during the past three decades.
“The Apache has made a tremendous impact in the defense of the nations that have flown it for the last 37 years,” said Kim Smith, Boeing Attack Helicopters vice president and program manager. “Our team understands the responsibility we have to deliver the best aircraft on time at an affordable price every day, and we are committed to maintaining that well established tradition of excellence.”

Source : The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) - view original press release

InThe Cubby-Hole @ Sloan Park: Big Biz or Big Bad Debt for Mesa Taxpayers?

Do Stadium/Ballparks Save Cities?

By Matthew Robare • October 31, 2016, 11:46 AM

Source: The American Conservative

Baseball stadiums are expensive to build and property prices have always been high, especially considering the amount of parking needed to accommodate 15-20,000 people.

As a result, teams want public financing, tax abatements, and all the other ills that crony capitalism promotes.

Paid for with higher taxes, increased public indebtedness, and highway improvements, the stadiums/ballparks were sold to city, county, and state governments as a form of economic development and urban regeneration.

None of that has happened most of the time - here in Mesa it's questionable with another pitch for another stadium using the same playbook to hoodwink taxpayers to finance the games of millionaire sports team franchise owners or to finance some dodgy real estate development schemes of one kind or another 

According to Bloomberg in 2013, sports stadiums don’t fulfill development goals because they’re empty much of the time, the jobs they create are low-wage, and they divert spending on food and beverages from other businesses... retail sales-and-use taxes do get a boost if it's only for the one month of spring training.

Stadium deals are no better than ordinary economic development funds.

Back in December of 2012, the New York Times found that states and cities spend up to $80 billion a year on economic development incentives with nothing much to show for it in the way of stronger economies or more and better paying jobs...

as long as team owners use threats to move a beloved team as emotional blackmail against an entire city—and public officials think can win votes on bad deals—sports franchises will continue to feast on public funds like a slugger on hanging sliders.

Matthew M. Robare is a freelance journalist based in Boston who writes about urbanism and history. This article was supported by a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Cubs mean big business, and big debt, for spring training home Mesa

By Robert ChannickContact Reporter Chicago Tribune

Cubs spring training is a tradition and a major tourist attraction in Mesa, Arizona, which built the team a $100 million stadium to keep them from leaving for Florida

When the Chicago Cubs opened spring training play last month in Mesa,  nearly 15,000 far-flung fans packed the city's 3-year-old stadium, celebrating the defending world champions after more than a century of shared futility.
For Mesa, a city of 475,000 which bankrolled the $100 million ballpark to keep the Cubs from bolting to Florida, ownership in the team's success is a source of civic pride, an economic opportunity and a major league debt.

Much larger cities than Mesa have balked in recent years at funding sports stadiums and indeed, in Chicago, the Cubs are privately funding the $800 million renovation of their team-owned mothership, Wrigley Field, and part of the surrounding neighborhood.

 But beyond a new upscale hotel, adjacent development has come slower than some had hoped, and while the stadium's tax burden falls on Mesa, the economic benefit flows across the border to neighboring Scottsdale, Tempe and other Phoenix-area towns.

Whether the one-month exhibition season provides enough of a boost to justify building the stadium remains the $100 million question.
Faced with potentially losing its most prominent tourist attraction to Florida and unable to secure state funding, Mesa stepped up to the plate, backing the deal through a municipal bond sale. The Cubs got a state-of-the-art spring training facility and increased stadium revenue, juiced by higher ticket prices. The city got the bill.
"The Cubs were in position to negotiate a very lucrative deal, and we're not begrudging that at all," said Mesa Mayor John Giles. "There still is a significant amount of economic activity that occurs outside of the ballpark, in the restaurants and hotels and everything. It's very significant for us."
HOW SIGNIFICANT?
Some history

Losing the team was never an option for Mesa, which shares a history with the Cubs that spans 65 years and four stadiums.

In 2009, the Ricketts family bought the Cubs and Wrigley Field from Tribune Co. (now Tribune Media) in an $845 million deal, launching a long-term plan to renovate the club and the century-old ballpark.
In Mesa, the Cubs threatened to exercise a 15-year lease option and move spring training to Florida after the 2012 season. Two Naples businessmen proposed building a 15,000-seat stadium, expansive training facilities and an adjacent Wrigley Village commercial district, with beach access nearby.
"It was a very attractive deal," said Crane Kenney, president of business operations for the Cubs. "We were flattered to be that attractive to Naples."
While Mesa could not match the beach access, the Cubs agreed to stay if they could get the rest, including a new stadium, adjacent training facilities and a "Wrigleyville" commercial complex.
Mesa first looked to fund the project through state legislation that called for a surcharge on Cactus League tickets. The so-called Cubs tax met with opposition from other club owners — notably White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf — and died on the vine.
Under the gun, Mesa agreed to finance the $84 million stadium and $15 million in infrastructure improvements itself, a plan approved by voters in November 2010.
"The political appetite outside of Mesa for stepping up to build the stadium was not there," said Giles, a lawyer and former city councilman who was elected mayor in August 2014. "So the city of Mesa just took the whole thing on its shoulders."
ADD on the back of taxpayers
In 2013, Mesa sold $94 million in excise tax bonds to cover the cost of the Cubs stadium and an $18 million renovation of Hohokam for its new tenants, the Oakland Athletics.
The bonds mature in 2027 and 2032, but the city can pay off the bonds earlier, in 2017 and 2022.
How is Mesa planning to pay off the debt?
Back in 2010 Mesa was talking about using a combination of existing funds, selling off city-owned land, and an increase in the hotel tax to raise $99 million in construction costs.
Mesa is planning to pay off the debtholders by selling nearly 11,400 acres of distant Pinal County farmland it acquired during the 1980s for water rights it no longer needs.
In December 2013, Pinal Land Holdings, a Scottsdale-based developer, agreed to buy the entire property for about $135 million, closing on 1,613 acres for $24 million.
The deal included an annual option fee of about $4.9 million to buy the balance of the land in two phases — by June 30, 2017, and June 30, 2019 — with the remaining 9,734 acres priced at $89 million.
The city expects the stadium bonds to be paid in full by 2022, according to Michael Kennington, Mesa's chief financial officer.
Mesa's commitment to carry the full debt for Sloan Park comes at a time when some cities are turning away from publicly financed pro sports facilities.
Most recently, San Diego voters in November rejected a referendum to allocate hundreds of millions in tax dollars toward a new stadium for the Chargers, prompting the football team to move to Los Angeles.
In Chicago, the Ricketts family is spending $800 million of its own money for the ongoing renovation of 103-year-old Wrigley Field and the surrounding neighborhood.
Bob Leib, a Wisconsin-based financial consultant to professional sports teams and owners, said taxpayer fatigue and shifting economic priorities have made publicly funded stadiums a harder sell.

"A politician doesn't want to be known as the guy who put into place a funding mechanism that funneled public dollars to billionaire owners," Leib said.
Bob Kammrath of the Mesa Taxpayer's Alliance, a now-defunct grass-roots group that led the failed opposition to the stadium funding referendum in 2010, still believes Mesa made a mistake by financing Sloan Park.


NEW POLITICAL TRICK in Arizona State House
The bill would allow creation of “community engagement” districts of up to 30 acres. Within them, up to half of the state’s share of sales taxes generated from retail sales and hotel stays would be dedicated to paying the bond debt for new sports or entertainment facilities. It also would allow an additional 2 percent district sales tax to be applied to all purchases within the district, with those revenues also dedicated to defraying the cost of facility construction.
This is a bit of a hybrid bill, combining super-TIFs (where half of existing sales and hotel taxes would be kicked back to pay teams’ construction costs) with a new sales tax surcharge in the area around the new sports venue. The math on how much of a subsidy this amounts to gets dicey — virtually all of a TIF would be cannibalized from sales and hotel tax receipts elsewhere in the state, but a slice of a sales tax surcharge could come out of a team owner’s pockets, depending on how big the surcharge area is ...the new super-TIF districts could be applied to help build any new sports and entertainment facilities. The only limit is that state money would only be allowed to pay for half of construction costs up to $750 million ...

Sebastain Junger On Society, Tribes + Battlefield Trauma >

Published on Mar 19, 2017

Views: 251

An American war correspondent with a degree cultural anthropology who who came home from Iraq to discover he had short-term PTSD, Junger has some important points to bring up concerning how military react once the horror observed first hand over and why.