A U.S. Military Botnet?

A U.S. Air Force colonel has proposed the creation of a military botnet to unleash against the hackers, especially the computer networks of foreign powers.

Botnets have become one of the hazards of modern life. They spew out spam by the truckload, and can be utilized for denial of service attacks. Now U.S. Air Force colonel Charles Williamson III has come up with a novel idea, according to AP. In the May edition of Armed Forces Journal the Colonel has proposed the formation of a military botnet that could be used against hackers and foreign powers to assert dominance – or at least defense – in cyberspace.

But whereas hackers infect the computers of unknowing users to create their net of so-called zombies, Colonel Williamson has suggested that the military could create its botnet from computers it would otherwise discard, then expand it with code on other government computers.

Colonel Williamson, who is staff judge advocate for Air Force Intelligence in the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, wrote:

"The days of the fortress are gone, even in cyberspace. While America must harden itself in cyberspace, we cannot afford to let adversaries maneuver in that domain uncontested."

The suggestion has begun a debate on the idea of a military botnet. While some are against it, others see it as a way of increasing the country’s defenses against attack.

But what, some have wondered, if the attacks came from computers in a friendly country?

"The biggest challenge will be political," Williamson answered. "How does the U.S. explain to its best friends that we had to shut down their computers? The best remedy for this is prevention.”