Deterring Chinese Cyber Militias with Freedom Militias
US defenses are insufficient to stop Chinese cyber attacks. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission estimates that Chinese cyber attacks cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars annually. By way of comparison, this is substantially more than the entire Chinese military budget.
What is needed is a threat that is both capable of forcing China to take notice and that it will believe the United States would execute. Such a threat exists. While China’s regime does not appear willing to be deterred by conventional diplomatic or legal complaints, it has demonstrated considerable concern about threats to its censorship apparatus.
The most effective way to threaten Chinese censorship would be for US and partner nations to develop their own cyber militias. Rather than stealing intellectual property and disabling public institutions, however, Western militias would aim at finding ways to bypass Chinese firewalls to spread internet freedom.
There already are American cyber militias. Pretty much the entire Psychological Operation effort intended for the American domestic target audience is entrusted to them. American cyber militia Computer Network Exploitation is a specialty of Internet Anthropologist Think Tank.
The Jawa Report are outstanding American cyber militia Computer Network Attackers and counterpropagandists, specializing in monitoring and taking down Jihadi websites.
Most of the conservative and libertarian blogosphere would love to be involved in disseminating information that annoys the Chicoms and spreads internet freedom behind the Great Firewall. But who amongst the .gov/.mil Regulars dares to work by, with and through Irregular Information Operators in the current political environment?
Also at GlobalSecurity.org
Countering the Cyber Jihad, 2006/04/28
Geek Battalion, 2006/05/01
Virtual Cyber Militias Must Run with the Ball OGAs Dropped, 2007/09/15
The Unorganized Cyber Militia of the United States, 2007/09/26
Wedges and Mauls, 2007/09/30
Irregular Restrictive Measures — Blogospheric Computer Network Attack, 2007/10/11
Plausibly Deniable Cat Herders, 2007/10/19
People’s Information Support Team, 2008/02/24
Fuzzy Bunny Slippers IO — The Rise of Pajamahadeen, Virtual Militias, and Irregular Information Operators, 2008/05/22
Red Chinese Cyber-Militia, 2008/05/29
Civilian Irregular Auxiliary Counterprogandists Contributed To Victory, 2008/11/22
Public Affairs and Information Operations, 2008/12/31
eResistance in Moldova, 2009/04/07
The amateurization of cyberwarfare, 2009/08/09
Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group 
One of the ideas floating around out there that I picked up on while researching the Letter Of Marque, is the idea of cyber privateers. Individual or companies, given total authority via the LoM to basically go after cyber criminals and even enemies waging cyber warfare. Yet again, the idea is to create an industry out of a task that needs to be accomplished. Then that task becomes self sustaining. I like the ‘hunting buffalo’ mindset, where if you attach value to your enemies, and create the legal mechanism for an industry that is geared towards killing your enemy, then hopefully the end result is the extinction of your enemy. Much like how the buffalo was hunted into near extinction because of it’s hide and meat. Hell, hunting buffalo became sport as well, and everyone wanted to kill those beasts back in the 1800’s, just because it was the thing to do. And because there was nothing in place to regulate the killing of the animal, the industry that was killing it ran through the herds of plains like a hungry hippo.
Mike Tanji just reminded me of Buccaneer.com today.
Pingback: National Defense University Blogging About Civilian Irregular Information Operators « Latest Information On All