Fiber-Optic Map: A Classified Dissertation? 299
An anonymous reader writes "So you spent all that time researching, compiling and formatting your dissertation ... now what if it became classified information? That's exactly what may end up happening to Sean Gorman's dissertation.
He's compiled a detailed map of American companies and the networks that bind it all together, right down to the very last fibre connection.
The government wants it classified in the interest of national security. Large financial institutions want it classified/destroyed in the interest of economic security. But terrorists would love for this to be published ... it would make their job so much easier." If Gorman can map the fiber network though, doesn't that mean someone else could do the same? Update: 07/09 13:06 GMT by T : Sorry, I blinked past the story as posted yesterday.
Whoops (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Whoops (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone is sleeping.
Re:Whoops (Score:2)
Re:Whoops (Score:2, Interesting)
That and/or check the URL's. That should actually be easier, since they should either match, or not. No fuzzy checking.
And, since the guts of the code could be implemented by a first-term CS undergrad, why *hasn't* this been done?
THEY know (Score:2)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Once it's posted to /., the dupes will ensure it never goes away!
You can read more about this... (Score:5, Funny)
You can read more about this here [slashdot.org].
Re:You can read more about this... (Score:2)
A dupe, but so what ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Morons.
Classified? (Score:2, Funny)
Only die-hard Slashdot readers would like to see such a technology because it would make our lives much easier.
Re:Classified? (Score:2)
not suprising (Score:5, Interesting)
In some Universities in US it happens every year regularly..
Re:not suprising (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, the problem I see is that it looks more like a scam.
Every bit of the information this guy is using is publically available, but they have a fancy "security" setup, go through all the motions to have a poor-man's SCIF, they smash old HDDs and degauss them, etc. BUT, every bit of the information they have is available to anybody that wants to dig it up themselves.
They have taken this information and made maps of it. WOW! Whoopee! Yes, they spent the same amount of time, maybe more, that any modern cartogropher would take to map the same thing.
The article did not mention that you can get your basic US maps free, in electronic format, from various government agencies. Just check the various OSS GPS projects. Above ground power lines appear there. Link this to a list of power company addresses and vola! a beginners map of the power system. Underground lines, pipes, fiber, etc all appear on some sort of map someplace.
Want to add wireless points to the mix? Go to the wardriver websites and add their maps to yours. Poof! Another infrastructure layer!
Want to add the "command structure"? Go get that GIA project (or whatever it is called) that was announced the other day, add that layer, TA DA! more crap on your map!
How this even counts as something to get a degree in is beyond me. Yes, it is very useful in general but it is nothing ground breaking, it is basic, classic mapmaking and he uses a computer instead of an offset press.
Re:not suprising (Score:5, Insightful)
Stack a bunch of graphite, throw in some uranium and graphite rods with some controls to raise and lower then and vola! an atomic pile.
And the first antibiotics...bread mold in a dish...
Often a breakthrough simply comes from someone organizing what has been out there for years.
Re:not suprising (Score:2)
Because no one had ever done it before successfully. Maps, however have been around for quite some time. An infrastructure map is hardly revolutionary or unprecedented.
Re:not suprising (Score:2, Insightful)
A earthquake danger chart for the Portland OR metro area is just a map and other data but it's a research project. Low temprature rock formations of Eastern Oregon aren't that revolutionary or unprecedented.
From the articles I've read on this guy and this subject he is the first one to put it all togeather in one place, sounds unpr
Re:not suprising (Score:5, Interesting)
It isn't the fact the material is publicly available; It's how this information is assembled and the determinations/conclusions that makes it classified.
The classification level, "confidential", "secret", "top secret", "top secret compartmented", etc, is determined based upon the impact this information could have on national interests or an ongoing operation.
spies collect public info (Score:4, Informative)
Re:spies collect public info (Score:2)
Now, the subject of this story has, perhaps, gathered several kinds of maps in compatible formats, then overlayed them onto each other.
Re:not suprising (Score:2)
Like the "You are Here" arrow on maps in malls. You don't even have to study the map, you just look at the big red arrow to know where you are.
Re:not suprising (Score:2)
All of the folks that think any joe-blow that can read a map and use a mapping program *can't* do the same thing are missing the point.
My gosh, I will almost bet that there are functions built into mapping software that will hilite characteristics that cross each other from various overlays, like powerlines, fiber, a gas line and a river, etc.
Re:not suprising (Score:2, Insightful)
So apparently you missed the part in the Washington Post that states...
Using mathematical formulas, he probes for critical links, trying to answer the question "If I were Osama bin Laden, where would I want to attack?"
What he has done is to probe and test the layers of infrastructure for weakness and try to determine the econominc impact if those weaknesses were to be exploited. Any boob can use GIS software to layer all of the diff
Re:not suprising (Score:2)
Bin Laden wants to KILL PEOPLE. He doesn't care about interrupting your porn download, or even bank transactions. The whole "hacker terrorist" hysteria of this story is just garbage. The real motives are hinted at in the news story -- executives want the fragility of their systems kept secret because it's embarrassing.
Re:not suprising (Score:3, Insightful)
Bin Laden does not want to kill people, what he wants is to destroy any threat to Islamic beliefs that he may perceive. Since he sees the USA (and other nations)as a threat to Islam, he has declared jihad against this country. The Islamic faith is against killing just like any other religion, but also like any other religion, killing can/is rationalized for the perceived greater good of the religous community and beliefs. So when you make an assinine statement like Bin Lad
Thesis not Data (Score:3, Interesting)
What I found interesting is that a 30 year old CS theory is leading edge Cartography.
Re:not suprising (Score:2, Insightful)
I really think that this security stuff is getting out of hand. Suppose a man with a backhoe just digs by accident. Its a daily occurance. Nobody except the liablity issues for the digger has any fit over it because there are so many redundant channels for data.
This is classic foolishness to classify such a map. The Internet was invented out of US DOD efforts to make communications web linked to make destruction of single or many routes irrelevant.
Terrorists attacking key nodes at the 50 top sites at
Can this be called "classification" (Score:2)
However, when they make a private individual or entity cover up such information, wouldn't it better be called "supression", "oppression", or something similar?
How can they make a private indivual cover up information not gained from already-classified sources?
Re:not suprising (Score:3, Funny)
Re:not suprising (Score:2)
Classified dissertations.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Classified dissertations.. (Score:4, Funny)
incognito (Score:5, Funny)
Is your identity classified too, AC? ;)
Re:Classified dissertations.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Classified dissertations.. Uranium enrichment (Score:2)
It probably has something to do with the costs associated with uranium enrichment projects, if I were to hazard a guess. Maybe it's valuable to someone who wants to figure out how much a program would cost?
Re:Classified dissertations.. Defenses, clearances (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not going to repeat my comments from yesterday's topic here, but instead invite you to read my thoughts on Defending disserations and visionaries [slashdot.org] and Part 2 of the same [slashdot.org]. Please read both links since they are part of the same post (split due to a mis-clicked Submit instead of Preview button).
The question I have for you is are you cleared to read your own disseration? You wrote it, but have you received government clearance to access your thesis. I'm also curious which department determined it should be classified. The NRO?
The other issue in Sean Gorman's case that is slightly different from yours is that your thesis was (presumably) classified after it was published since you haven't mentioned anything about not receiving your degree. Sean Gorman is faced with being denied his degree because his work has been classified before he can complete his disseration.
Does he have to keep anything secret? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Does he have to keep anything secret? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does he have to keep anything secret? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does he have to keep anything secret? (Score:2)
Re:Does he have to keep anything secret? (Score:2)
The Government is the one that can't do anything other than maybe lock him up as a material witness or something crazy like that.
Companies could threaten him with a DMCA lawsuit and keep him bankrupt and hesitant to talk for a few years.
That's why it must be classified. (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is exactly why his work must be classified or destroyed. Remember, kids, most recent laws are here not to prevent the bad guys from doing something (by deffinition, they are bad and thus expected to break those laws), but to prevent the average citizen from doing something.
Re:That's why it must be classified. (Score:2, Flamebait)
The thing that really gets my goat is the Bush administration's extreme knee-jerk reaction to anything they see as even a slight risk. And they do it in the name of post-9/11 security (and all that is holy) when the fact of the matt
Re:That's why it must be classified. (Score:2)
That seems silly, as closed cockpit doors, air patrols, etc wouldn't protect you from any other form of terrorist attack.
Reminds me of... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Reminds me of... (Score:2)
For those that are interested, there was a book published about the entire incident. Mushroom: The Story of the A-Bomb Kid. It's out of print, but you can locate used copies through Amazon [amazon.com] or Abebooks [abebooks.com].
From this source [covehurst.net] I located the jacket text. Enjoy.
Re:Reminds me of... (Score:2)
I Know! (Score:2)
Let's get the story on all the major news channels!
I sure hope no terrorists get wind of this and get any ideas about blowing up fiber optic trunks... that would be bad.
He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering that it's the data in the program that is sensitive and was time-consuming to compile, the algorithms themselves are pretty harmless. Why not call his dissertation "A Method for Mapping National-Scale Fiber Optic Networks," get his degree, feed the source to his dog, and get a job with the NSA?
Re:He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:5, Interesting)
For those who think this is bad, look at the old soviet union. Even for all their hard security (which seems to be the direction that we are headed), we knew most of their soft spots. So even if we truely implement the same society that Soviet Union had, we would still be a main target. Any time you have fixed assets, it is a target. period.
Re:He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:3, Insightful)
Yep. And for any other location, dial up the number on the "call before you dig" sign and you can sometimes even get a telco to send you a fairly detailed map.
Re:He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:2)
Re:He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:2)
Re:He can publish AND not go to jail (Score:2)
The last thing the world needs is an AIBO that learns about our vulnerabilities. Isn't this how the whole Terminator mess got started?
Subscribers Supposed to Catch? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Subscribers Supposed to Catch? (Score:5, Funny)
Spoken with the youthful zeal of a subscriber whose never reported an egregious error to daddypants pre-publication, only to be ignored, and see a good thirty percent of the subsequent posts wail on off-topic about the [avoidable] error.
I've reached the conclusion that the
timothy: "Hey, Rob, I was about to release this when that Robot guy send me this; he says 'Architecting' is not a verb. We use it that way in the subject of the release."
cmdr_taco: He's right. It's not. Drives me crazy when I hear people use it that way, too."
timothy: "So... change it....?"
cmdr_taco: "NO! Whaddyou, kidding? They'll go wacky bat-shit with this one. Good for a hundred Grammar-Nazi posts, easily. Then they'll be some poor ex-dot-com-er who'll try to say it *is* a word, and they'll all pile on for another thirty or fifty, at least."
timothy: "Wow! 150 posts, God-knows how many pageviews, just because we *don't* expend any effort to correct something? That's amazing..."
cmdr_taco: "You've a lot to learn about building a Web Community, young padawan..."
Re:Subscribers Supposed to Catch? (Score:2)
-Ab
Re:Subscribers Supposed to Catch? (Score:2)
The Trolls (Score:2)
I stopped wondering that years ago. Slashdot in general, and the YRO section in particular, is one big trollfest. Enjoy!
Hopefully ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Missing Links (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Missing Links (Score:2)
http://cryptome.org [cryptome.org]
and
http://cartome.org [cartome.org]
Damn, I've just Slashdotted Cryptome...
What About Australia? (Score:3, Insightful)
I reckon the continent is spanned by a couple of (a few if you're lucky) fibre optic cables. Chances are you don't even need a map to find them. Just follow the line of solar powered repeaters, one of the handful of roads or the single railway line. Alternatively, just look for the line of brightly coloured posts marking the cables, in an attempt to stop people accidentally digging them up!
Take your ditch digger into a remote area, carve a 100 metre ditch perpendicular to the road and bingo, one severed optical fibre cable.
Re:What About Australia? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What About Australia? (Score:2)
It's already happened to us. In Canada, a fire in a Bell exchange (in Toronto) cut off the telephones for most of the eastern portion of the whole country. It was about 4 years ago, IIRC, and everyone had to use cell phones for a while. Except then, the cell networks got overloaded too
Dupe.. but... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd much rather America's infrastructure was resilient, so that it was near-unbreakable even when the details are known, like a good crypto algo, than to have government and financial institutions cowering behind the false security of secrecy.
The report should be published, along with weekly updates!
Dupe? What's your point, people? (Score:4, Insightful)
But to everyone else bitching to hell and back about duplicate posts (in redundant, duplicate posts to begin with), I say:
Big. Freaking. Deal.
If you don't like it sooooo much--if you have such a problem with the content of Slashdot--STOP READING SLASHDOT. You're not paying anything, you're not forced to read any of the sections, and no one here owes you anything.
I don't understand why people who are pissed off so much by typos and accidental duplicate story posts (it's not like it's done on purpose) would continue coming here just to bitch about it in the comment threads. Oh, wait, this is
Re:Dupe? What's your point, people? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe instead of complaining that this one is a dupe, we should be complaining that yesterday's headline and description were lacklustre and ignorable.
Re:Dupe? What's your point, people? (Score:2)
"If you don't like it, then get out!"
Re:Dupe? What's your point, people? (Score:2, Offtopic)
I don't understand why people who are pissed off so much by typos and accidental duplicate story posts (it's not like it's done on purpose) would continue coming here just to bitch about it in the comment threads. Oh, wait, this is /Slashdot/ ...
You do understand that many of us "pissed
Re:Dupe? What's your point, people? (Score:2)
Pissed off? I find it funny. Plus, if we were to keep quiet on such things, then such things would go un-noticed. Some people like to be informed!
Read "Dupe!" as "See previous for more info." Say thanks, have a laugh, but if you get so "pissed off" about these posts, then read something more censored and leave Slashdot alone.
Backhoes == Terroist (Score:2, Funny)
I think that his thesis should be published and given to all the fine backhoe operators out there who thought that "that cable didn't look it was being used".
Just your average farmer.
Re:Backhoes == Terroist (Score:2)
In the NE corridor you have to worry about trains. Economies of cheapness^H^H^H^H^H^H^ efficiency, most of our fiber runs side by side with rail lines. One firy train wreck in Baltimore knocked out a good chunk of UUnet between DC and New York.
I love being on AT&T's backbone on days like that.
"Let's classify this, rather than fix the problem" (Score:2)
Why isn't anyone stepping up to complain about the lies and misinformation of building and being sold a resilent internet? I mean, that was a goal of the original ARPAnet, we know how to do it. I've been told by all the big name backbones that they offer high relability, resilent networking, which appears to be a lie about their product.
I want the real problem fix, fix the networking!, build a truely resilent network backbone.
Another one for our ass, people (Score:2, Interesting)
Tom Clancy, too (Score:2, Informative)
I worked once with a guy who had worked in anti-sub warfare in the USN. He said Clancy was onto all sorts of classified stuff (_and_ a lot of baloney, too). Seems he was able to piece together a number of unclassified bits into a (synergistically) classified piece.
Re:Tom Clancy, too (Score:2)
Hollywood (for all its quirks) seems to stumble on bits and pieces too.
Mapping the network (Score:3, Insightful)
So, now anyone wanting to replicate Gorman's work will need to take the next 4-6 years off, have an advisor who will keep you from going down dead ends as Gorman's advisor probably did, get paid by someone (Mr. Bin Laden?) during that time, work in a newly, informational hostile environment, and keep updating your map even as you map new areas. Not a piece of cake.
Re:Mapping the network (Score:3, Interesting)
Spurious assumption. Here's the differences:
Internet Durability? (Score:4, Insightful)
The Internet was designed to be durable. It is built with many points of failure and it is supposed to function even with many of those points disabled.
Why is it then that a backhoe operator in California can knock out Internet access or at least cripple traffic for the entire country?
Is it simply that there is not enough redundancy to make this possible? If that is the case, forget about supressing research like Gorman's and increase the infrastructure.
Regrettably, I must agree that spilling this information out into the public domain is not the best. Computer security concerns should be publicized, but physical security issues should not. They differ insofar as the means of resolving security issues. If some operating system has a vulnerability, it is repaired once and the patch gets disseminated to all affected systems. You cannot simply build a stronger door and pass that door around to all affected sites.
Nevertheless, we should make efforts to nullify the vulnerability so that when this information becomes public, the point is moot and a few bombs destroying some fiber will do nothing.
Re:Internet Durability? (Score:2, Interesting)
Scale free networks. A network that fits this characteristic can be significantly degraded by removing well-connected nodes.
Re:Internet Durability? (Score:2)
Re:Internet Durability? (Score:3, Insightful)
It takes time, money and engineering to build a reliable network. Back in the days of the Bell System, a great deal of effort was expended in improving the reliability of the hardware and the network. There were redundant paths, load balancing and excess capacity built into the network. Huge amounts of money were spent on making electronic switching systems, and the associated software, extremely reliable.
The Bell monopoly is gone. So are the economic conditions that made
Re:Internet Durability? (Score:2)
Redundency in the network is of no value if losing one link raises the traffic far enough on the redundent paths to lock them up solid.
I'm in Lansing, MI (middle of the lower part of the state), and we've had our primary link to Chicago severed before. Our packets were re-routed through northern MI, but the links are much, much slower then the primary link to Chicago. Packets got through, but forge
PhD quality research? (Score:4, Insightful)
I admit that this author is not alone--in the CS department where I work, "experimental" Ph.D. theses featuring poorly designed experiments or no scientific work at all (which appears to be the case above) are a constant problem.
Perhaps this is an accident of the youth of the field.
Security Through Obscurity (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, the work should be used to increase our knowledge of our infrastructure so that we can know our own weaknesses. If we are aware of our weaknesses, we can then do something to protect them.
There are probably many legitimate applications that can be built using this knowledge. For instance, my company is launching a Web service which may someday have millions of users worldwide. It would be very nice to be able to analyze our nation's infrastructure for the most secure and reliable places to co-lo our servers.
That's okay... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's okay - the writeup was much better this time.
Time to classify thinkgeek! (Score:4, Funny)
Terrorist training: "Attack the purple bit..no no the one above the orange spidery bit..
Since when.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Since when.. (Score:2)
Ministry of Truth, Rule #3 (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess as to how he did it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Not too novel or ingenious, just tedious. Will the US ban traceroute now?
What about the proliferation of knowledge? (Score:5, Insightful)
"He should turn it in to his professor, get his grade -- and then they both should burn it," said Richard Clarke, who until recently was the White House cyberterrorism chief.
Knowledge should be used to empower. Knowledge should be passed along from generation to generation. It is our knowledge that makes this (or any country) worthy of defending.
How about finding ways to better secure our national infrastructure instead of "persecuting" researchers. What's next? The Bush administration will outlawing thinking?
Maybe I am just overreacting, but the above quote from this article reminds me of The Burning of the Library of Alexandria [ehistory.com].
Re:The only thing Orwell got wrong was the year... (Score:3)
Welcome to 1984, my friend. I've been saying it and saying it until I'm blue in the face... the only thing Orwell was wrong about was the year... the world (well, the USA at least) *is* evolving towards something like what he described...
The sad thing is, there's still time to do something about it... but the problem is, most Americans ar
Security through obscurity (Score:3, Interesting)
This is yet another case of groups wanting to keep the public dumb, supposedly for security. But what they seem to forget is that that way lies...no, that just IS a fascist cencorship.
Not only is it useless (as the blurb states, what has been done once can be done again), but the map itself can be very usefull for purposes of statistical analysis, extrapolation, troubleshooting, and it also just makes a cool map
An analogy would be classifying a map of all the universities in a country. Trust me, blow them up (and the students/prof's in them, of course), and that country will be in deep shit in a year's time, even more so than blowing up the government/some financial centre/some computers.
easy killer - a bit ot but relevant.. (Score:5, Insightful)
yes, isnt their *just a little* paranoia in that statement? What is more likely, that A) the World-trade-center event was rather isolated and abhorent or B) There are vast numbers of Evil Terrorists(tm) plotting from within America just waiting -- literally foaming at the mouth in breathless anticipation -- of this kind of information in order to plot their Next Terrorist Attack(tm).
Really, you yanks need to get out more. The rest of the world deals with these kinds of criminals ALL THE TIME(!) and you dont see them in a paranoid funk do you? Your wife/mother/daughter is more likely to be raped and killed by your husband/father/son than they are to die bc of the Next Terrorist Attack(tm). You gonna lock up anyone who looks cross-eyed?
I understand the world trade center was a very tragic and emotional event, but really -- CALM THE HELL down and start to think rationally again. Your government/military has your nation whipped in such a lather that *YOU* are *really* a greater threat to World Peace than any Evil Terrorist(tm).
It was not OK for the US to invade Afghanistan because they cant/wont extradite osama binladen*. It was not OK for the US to invade Iraq because they didnt like sadam hussein*. It will not be OK the next time the US decides to invade %somewhere%.
*setting up these straw-men, and demonizing them was a propaganda tactic meant to shift the public's views of these events... instead of understanding the events as Germany->Poland style invasions, justifying them as "go after this Real Evil Dude(tm)" is pretty straight-forward propaganda... the fictional rationale is irrelvant really. The bottom line is that the USA just invaded/occupied two nations in the last few years. These subtleties may be lost on the domestic audience, but the rest of the world A) doesnt buy it and B) sees the USA as a rogue nation... but I digress.
PS to the Brits amoungst us; please toss Blair out of office for this misdead - but dont elect the god-darn conservatives in his place, they will only be worse.
Re:easy killer - a bit ot but relevant.. (Score:2)
As to invasion yup we did and will probably do it again. Personaly I see this as the right of any soverign nation to declare war and invade another if they are not doing what they want them to this is how politics used to get done. It all boils down to if you beleive that ultimatly the people have power or some body of law has power. The UN in a lot of way
This part (Score:2)
Re:This part (Score:3, Insightful)
As one who has mapped fiber runs- (Score:2)
I worked at a company that takes paper maps of major telcom companies' (ie. AT&T, ComCast) fiber runs, and puts them in a proprietary computerized form. Some of the maps, only one person at the telcom regional office knows what the various symbols mean, and/or what parts or the run do/do not actually follow the mapped routes.
Record keeping during the 'boom' of fiber optic installation was generall
Spooks on Campus? (Score:2)
They started in January and will hand in by August 15th. After I grade - and I know their work intimately since I approved topics and see drafts every six weeks or so - the Chairwoman of the department will grade them as well and then that's it. They're done.
So who the hell raises the bell when a dissertation crosses the line? I teach Econometrics so I know National Security implications