6/22/99 This was sent to me and I thought I should send it around. If DOD is truly worried, then perhaps, so should we. But if Y2K is an excuse for something else, then this could be a hint. I have been noticing a great deal of centralization over this last year on the internet, in the market and with the government's attitude towards being the Police of the world. The U.S. Department of Defense is so concerned about the potential for problems associated with the Y2K millennium bug that it is considering unplugging itself from the Internet to defend against a simultaneous cyber assault. That word comes from Marvin Langston, the deputy chief information officer for the Pentagon, who says the discussions about the plan are "as serious as a heart attack." "We need to close down back doors around the year 2000 to prevent hacking during Y2K confusion," he said during a panel discussion at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference last week. In the event of a cyber attack, Defense would switch from the public Internet to the Nonclassified Internet Protocol Router Network, or NIPRNET, the military's own Internet with external connections. The military also maintains a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network of classified material without external connections. Defense Secretary William Cohen, who uses many military websites as if they were his own personal public relations pages, has been cautioning for months that too much information about defense forces and capabilities is available publicly on the Internet. "The rapid growth of the Internet has created the potential for vulnerabilities in DOD networks," says a Pentagon draft policy that mandates the termination of many unauthorized military Internet connections. "The Defense Science Board warned that networks might be susceptible to more frequent attacks as hackers attempt to masquerade their activities as Y2K bugs. A reinforced policy is needed to protect the security" of the NIPRNET from potential information warfare and Y2K consequences. The Pentagon's Y2K Management Plan updated this month states that millennium bug remediation efforts can expose systems to information warfare attacks and that some groups or individuals may "take advantage of Y2K problems to implant backdoor software routines, viruses, etc. During Y2K fixes, some individuals may gain full access to systems previously protected from external attacks." I guess we should be thankful that some people in the Defense Department are making plans to tighten security during an upcoming period of possible instability. But this information from the Pentagon raises a number of questions: Is the Pentagon really using Y2K as an excuse to move more information readily available to the public into the semi-classified files, making the Defense Department even less open and less accountable to the people? Is the Department of Defense truly concerned about threats from foreign powers, terrorists, rogue states and domestic enemies, or is this preventative measure more geared to insulating itself from legitimate criticism and the efforts of whistleblowers who monitor activities in government? By making such provisions, just how bad does the Defense Department anticipate the Y2K bug to be? If the only threat posed by hackers is temporarily knocking some public information off its public Internet sites, does it really make sense to move all of that public information into non-public sites? Is the military planning to use these non-public sites as a means of communicating information internally during a possible national Y2K emergency? Does the Pentagon have any specific knowledge of efforts by groups or individuals planning to use the Y2K bug as cover for cyber terrorist attacks on U.S. sites and installations? If Y2K terrorists are likely to target the Defense Department, what else can we look forward to them targeting? Though we're only a little more than six months away from Y2K D-Day, no one in or out of government seems to be offering much reassurance to a public wholly unprepared for major disruptions or long-term inconvenience. Reports like this from the Pentagon only serve to raise more suspicion that government bureaucrats are taking care of themselves but not really doing much of anything to serve the people. The American people are completely in the dark. Plans are being made -- some of them ominous plans -- around possible Y2K breakdowns. But they are not being readily shared and discussed with the people. That tells me the government doesn't trust the people. If that's the case, the people would be very wise not to put too much trust in the government. A daily radio broadcast adaptation of Joseph Farah's commentaries can be heard at http://www.ktkz.com/