UCB, USC To Build (And Hack) A Model Internet

darksoulz writes "Associated Press stories from TheKansasCityChannel.com and TheChamplainChannel.com have an interesting report today. It appears that the U.S. Government has given a $5.5 million grant to the University of California, Berkley and the University of Southern California so that they can build a model of the internet, so they can hack it. They are trying to find better defenses against hacking, without breaking the real Internet. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by February."

Good

[delirium28]

This is an intersting approach, but if they keep this a "closed system" (i.e. a hidden internet), then how much real "hacking" can they expect? Are they going to use honeypot data? Will they expose this system externally for real "hackers" to play with? Just my $0.02 worth.

Simulating current internet activity

[Alystair]

I wonder how they will be going around to simulate the current p2p and other activity on it...

Questions remain

[bwaynef]

I think this is a straight-forward approach but there are problems that need to be addressed.

• How will they implement the latencies and delays that commonly befall the internet.
• Where will the millions of unique traffic-data originate.
• How will they mimic the different styles of hacking.

It would be interesting to see how they implement this network.

• Are they going to be two seperate networks.
• Will they be one network connected over an existing internet link?
• If they connect over an existing internet link how will they deal with that connection as its no longer a simulation

I don't think that we have a requirement to see any of the information that I've questioned above but this information could lead /. to be more informed on this situation.

Similar Project at Iowa State University

[logrey]

Iowa State has a similar project funded with a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Iowa State Computer Security Lab [iastate.edu]

So is this anti-terrorism too?

[PJ1382]

So they're building a model of the internet to hack, so they can better deal with threats. Is the government really that much at risk that they need to do this? Surely they could just hire some really good hackers at ludicrous salaries to protect themselves?

Or is this really more war on terror stuff? Do they think that terrorist groups are operating over the internet and are they actually setting up some sort of training ground for an elite anti-terrorism unit to stop Osama Bin Laden getting his email or something?

Seems a bit sus to me...

Re:Tin foil hat or not?

[ShinmaWa]

I'm absolutely positive that part of the agreement was that Berkeley could publish their findings once the project was over. If absolute secrecy was important, then it wouldn't be done at Berkeley (and it wouldn't be reported on Slashdot). Its that simple.

Besides, in order to "shore up the US", there would need to be a lot of cooperation among the multitudes of private enterprises that actually run and maintain the network. Most of the big players in this arena are large, multinational companies that would be inclined to shore up ALL their networks, not just the ones in the US.

Re:Tin foil hat or not?

[xenocide2]

Interesting view you have of Berkeley, and publishing secrecy. Berkeley professors have been placed in tough spots before [theatlantic.com], and I don't see any reason why this would be different. Absolute secrecy may not be needed for this sort of project, but the Homeland Defense group isn't the only people concerned about publication. You can expect that any paper to be published must be sent to the Homeland Defense and the NSF groups and approved, with about six months delay, depending on the scope and severity of the discoveries made.

On the other hand, if the Dept of Homeland Security doesn't like it for whatever reason, they'll likely try to stop publication, reguardless of what the grant says and doesn't say.

Re:Good

[h8macs]

How much 'actual' good data will this contain? Sounds more like a money funnel to me.

They are smart collegians mind you, however the wild spawns the actual entity they are trying to catch. Distributed honeypot net would be more effective in my opinion.

They will not have the same results.

Is it really just defensive?

[billstewart]

I'm sure that most of the work that'll be done with this project is defensive, but is some of it really going to be offensive as well? Most of the time it's going to be modelling different methods of attacking network interconnection and different methods of defending against it, but when you've got a thousand machines with heavy-duty cracker tools located a few dark-fiber meters away from several Internet2 routers and just down the road from the San Francisco and DC area internet junction points, it's got to be real tempting to not only mail out CDs of crackerware to the military's cyberwarriers, but also to occasionally jack in to the real Internet and go pound some target, or upload a few hundred thousand copies of Zombieware N.2 to their public-side counterparts.

Re:In ten years...

[cheekyboy]

What you need is a real virus writer to join the Uni and join this program. Then he can 'sim' a new worm that is smart to avoid blocks and firewalls.