Air Force suspends controversial "Cyber Command"

Noah Shachtman tells Boing Boing,

The Air Force is about to suspend its controversial effort to reorganize its forces to "dominate" cyberspace. The provisional, 8,000-man Cyber Command has been ordered to stop all activities, just weeks before it was supposed to be declared operational.

Air Force Suspends Controversial Cyber Command (Wired Danger Room).

Above: Air Force Cyber Command Recruiting Video (YouTube)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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The Snowden Principle

Takuan

poor web, a bone between DHS dogs, pentagon dogs, alphabet agency dogs…. who do you suppose will finally own us?
mdhatter

This update brought to you by the White House Office of Disinformation.
Takuan

oh, you mean all of them?
acx99

Translation:

The 8000 man Cyber command is now fully operational.
Geoff Sebesta

Yeah, right.
certron

#12, w000t: I think they should be outfitted in TRON costumes, I mean camouflage.

I guess if they have shut it down, there goes the one part of the military I would have considered joining (and be closest to qualified for).

One interesting thing would be to use the networks to predict if a country was planning a military action in the near future, but in agreement with someone on the radio yesterday, I’d be more impressed if they noticed the uptick in activity before the shooting war broke out instead of after.
dainel

#15 certron, … One interesting thing would be to use the networks to predict if a country was planning a military action in the near future …

Extremely bad idea. Don’t give them another excuse for preemptive strikes.
claud9999

The sole-source contractor has been paid in full for building the facility and stocking it with overpriced equipment…Time to close it up and auction it off at a huge discount. Hey, maybe said contractor would be interested in bidding!

And in the meantime, I think the AF has some Compaq luggables still able to power on. Maybe the soldiers can use that!
Elysianartist

#2 is spot on.
PapaBear

I like the way we get the hopes and confidence up with the recruitment video, then lay you flat with the news that we failed to implement.

Kinda leaves me feeling nekkid….
gATO

And what, exactly, would the Cyber Command’s mission be, besides being an apparent repository of every bad, cheesy sci-fi clichÃ©, down to the artwork?
Not a Doktor

don’t worry there’s the citizens’ militia of anonymous
stiaand

Sounds like the most stressful job ever. If you are working in IT, you know how it is with a loud-mouthed impatient customer who is also an idiot who doesn’t understand jack shit of what you’re telling him about his computer.

Now imagine the same guy with a gun, ordering you to fix something ASAP (or “yesterday”, depending on what type of clichÃ© the guy is), even though it’s a problem that can’t be fixed within that time limit.

On the other hand, this must be the job of a lifetime for BOFH’s! :D
ghstdoghaiku

Whoops now it’s here; now it’s black ops…
Ugly Canuck

Gato: Monitoring dissent? Advancing discussions in the direction they want them to go? Covert “leadership”?
angryhippo

Skynet will not be denied.
Jayel Aheram

Halted? Like the “Total Information Awareness” agency?
mdhatter

There is no cybercommand like there is no cake.
Seanbot

First they capture the Tardis and now this!
toxonix

a pork barrel?
skramble

duuude, I wanted to be in the cyber commmand so bad. now what I have I got to aim for?
TharkLord

Suspended?

Hmmm… Like a puppet?

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Initiate Supermarionation!!!

Cyber Command is GO!
Adam Weiss

This is probably just some dick’s ploy to get some power by reorganizing so he can replace perfectly functional UNIX systems with brand new buggy and unreliable Windows based systems.

I think the headline should read: Air Force halts implementation of new unjustified super expensive IT reorganization.

Dude, I don’t work the helpdesk. I’m a staff sergeant in the CYBER COMMAND. Get it straight.
Havanacus

I’m glad, there commercials really made me worry about the future…
Anonymous

Adam, your final line nearly killed me. Nose-coffee is not good for my keyboard, either.

–Charlie
SeamusAndrewMurphy

If accurate, wouldn’t these guys/gals be wearing T-shirts that are one size small, with huge pot bellies, no upper body muscle and a plate of nachos in front of them?
w000t

I always thought this commercial (or the practice reflected by it) was ridiculous because the computer techs are wearing camouflageâ€“a woodland pattern, I believe. Camo – working at a computer, at the Pentagon, in the city. Hell, as someone who grew up on and around AFBs, I can tell you the USAF does wear camo, but not as often as it just wears fatigues.

If they wanted them to blend in on the internet, the USAF should have issued them all memberships in the Threadless 12 month club or something.
ridl

There is no cybercommand like there is no spoon.
regeya

Good. Sounded like yet another department brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department. I thought that part of the mission of setting up the DHS was to do away with some of that…I know that sounds silly and naive, but that was one of the stated goals…