The Hacker and the State
Tue, Apr 09
At turn of the millennium, world governments became heavily invested in the development of sophisticated cyber capabilities for their intelligence agencies and militaries. In today's lecture, we will examine the history of this, including some notable operations that have been undertaken. Importantly, we will consider the mixed record such operations have had over the past couple of decades. We have three learning goals for today. By the end of our lecture class, you will:
- Have an understanding of the strategies used by state-based hackers for conducting cyber operations, including the similarities to and differences from the strategies developed by amateur hackers.
- Appreciate the political dimension of cyberwarfare and how it relates to the strategic objectives of states.
- Scrutinize the ethics of state-sponsored hacking (perhaps a very important lesson for some of you who will go on to work for the government or government contractors).
The digital artifact for today is the Stuxnet Worm.
The slides for today's lecture are available here.
Read This:
Today's reading is Chapters 1-4 of the journalist Kim Zetter's book on Stuxnet: Countdown to Zero Day.
Do This:
Movie Viewing
Watch the 2023 PBS Frontline documentary Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus. You can access the film through the PBS's website. The next writing reflection will prompt you to think about this film in a creative way.
Technical Homework 05
See the instructions posted on the assignment's page.
This technical homework is due on 4/16 at 5pm.
Once you have completed the reading, fill out the following quiz. It is based on both the readings for this week's classes. If you can't see it, try this direct link.