America's Hacker Troops

Join the Army and see cyberspace

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the U.S. military wouldn't even whisper about its plans to hack into opponents' networks. Now America's armed forces can't stop talking about it.

The latest example comes from the U.S. Air Force, which last week announced its interest in methods "to destroy, deny, degrade, disrupt, deceive, corrupt, or usurp the adversaries [sic] ability to use the cyberspace domain for his advantage." But that's only one item in a long list of "Cyberspace Warfare Operations Capabilities" that the Air Force would like to possess. The service, in its request for proposals, also asked for the "ability to control cyberspace effects at specified times and places," as well as the "denial of service on cyberspace resources, current/future operating systems, and network devices."