Security Watch | Matt Hines » Hacking the IED Network in Iraq

March 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Hacking the IED Network in Iraq

TAGS: Security

In a presentation that served as a departure from the regular trade show fare, a security researcher and Naval officer regaled attendees of the ongoing ShmooCon show with a presentation on efforts by the U.S. military to dissect improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and the network of people who build them, in Iraq.

Michael Shearer, a contributor to the Church of Wifi security research project and an active-duty Naval flight officer, a lieutenant to be exact, give an overview of the situation that U.S. military technicians are faced with in disarming the huge number of IEDs on the ground in Iraq -- which have become arguably the greatest source of danger for coalition fighters in the region.

Much as security researchers must use a multitude of techniques to take apart malware programs and track down the people responsible for writing and distributing the code, bomb experts are working to dismantle not only the explosive devices themselves but the network of people who are financing and building the bombs, Shearer said.

One of the most significant problems with the devices, much as with popular malware formats, is that there is no shortage of components handy for piecing them together. On the ground in Iraq, he said, attackers have tapped into caches of old explosives previously maintained by the Iraqi military, and stolen bomb-making materials such as detonation technologies from people trying to rebuild the country's infrastructure.

And much like the complex networks of site operators, adware distributors, fraudsters and malware writers responsible for many online attacks, the teams of military bomb experts are fighting a broad range of individuals believed to be responsible for the IEDs -- from those who finance the bombs to those who build and place the weapons.

In addition to traditional methods of detection, the military is finding some new ways to sniff out the IEDs before they can be detonated, Shearer said. Among the cutting-edge techniques being employed to that end are systems that attempt to find unintended radio transmissions being emanated by the bombs, and so-called hyperspectral sensors which are used in planes to find recent changes in topography that may indicate where IEDs have been placed.

Posted by Matt Hines on March 24, 2007 03:37 PM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: