Looks like I missed a bit of fun news last week. The Air Force announced that it will be providing “Cyber Sidearms” to its servicemen to help them better respond to cyber attacks. Yet again our men in uniform are underequiped for the battle. Where are the “cyber bunker busters”, the “cyber personelle armor”, and the “cyber uparmored humvee”?
But don’t worry, the men in uniform will be hitting the range to ensure their proficiency with this new cyber weapon.
Lt General Robert Elder said service leaders will stage fake threats to practice using the cyber sidearm. Service members will receive points when they use the tool appropriately and lose points when they fail to act on a simulated threat, he said during a panel discussion in Washington last week sponsored by the Air Force Association.
Use of a real side arm has the effect of putting the enemy down. (And brings you before a review board).
Use of a cybersidearm does… well according the article it doesn’t do much. They haven’t even decided what it will do. At best it sounds like the equivelent of pulling a firealarm or calling 911. It doesn’t stop an attack in progress. Maybe instead of cyber sidearm they should have called this cyber 911. Oh wait, Richard Clarke is already using that name.
