On 12/16, Zachary Fryer-Biggs and Aram Roston wrote for DefenseNews on how the U.S. is attempting to “jump the gap” into our adversaries’ air gapped, unconnected networks. Logic says that if you want to defend your network from cyberattack, disconnect your network from the internet. Assuming someone doesn’t have a physical means to infect it (like a USB), it makes the network a lot safer. However, according to Fryer-Biggs and Roston, the US Army is working with scientists to study how “electromagnetic fields and radio frequencies” can defeat a network’s physical separation and still install malicious code. Specifically, the article mentioned “ready-made boxes” that can “insert[] and extract[] data from sealed, wired networks.” While that’s pretty cool, the article noted limitations like proximity and bandwidth. There’s more to the DefenseNews article, so check that out.
Back in March, Ellen Nakashima reported on this very same technology for The Washington Post, noting that:
The Pentagon is accelerating efforts to develop a new generation of cyberweapons capable of disrupting enemy military networks even when those networks are not connected to the Internet, according to current and former U.S. officials.
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