[Animats]

This is a takeoff on a well known WWII pamphlet, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.[1]

That's not the real worry today. Today we have to worry about remote sabotage of key systems - water, power, comms. It's quite possible that we will see major blackouts in the US, Russia, Europe, or China as side effects of the various wars in progress.

[1] https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/the-art-of-simple-sabotage...

[doright]

I thought it was a reference to Brian Eno's co-created project Oblique Strategies.

https://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique-strategies.html

[ben_w]

I suspect that if it was possible to do anything significant to Russian infrastructure via hacking, it would have already happened by now.

2 million USD gets you a smartphone zero-day*, according to rumours, something like a single ATACMS missile.

* geometric mean of 200k and 20M: https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/27/russian-zero-day-seller-of...

[jamesmotherway]

I'm assuming by "significant" you mean an attack on critical infrastructure.

That's a strategic capability that very likely requires multiple attack chains, not a single exploit. For Western countries, cost is probably the least significant factor in deciding to use it.

One would want to be certain that option is available, but only when absolutely necessary. Using it on a random Tuesday would take that particular option off the table forever. Best case scenario, Russia discovers the means by which the attack was carried out. Worst case, they retaliate with nuclear weapons.

Globally, I believe there are only a few countries capable of executing such a plan.

[0xDEAFBEAD]

>I suspect that if it was possible to do anything significant to Russian infrastructure via hacking, it would have already happened by now.

Alternatively, maybe it is possible, but the US doesn't want to escalate? You saw how reluctant Biden was to authorize missile strikes inside Russia.

[t-3]

Hacking would just be tit-for-tat at most, and unlikely to be accepted as a good reason for major escalations. Most likely Russian infrastructure is just too old to be vulnerable in the same ways as Western infrastructure.

[ben_w]

At the price I've quoted, it isn't Biden's decision, it's something Zelensky could order directly from Ukranian taxes as a rounding error.

At least, if it was possible.

[0xDEAFBEAD]

My understanding is that Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine have been rather ineffectual due to Ukrainian cyber defenses.

[rightbyte]

I've always read that one as satire critique of the American DoD. It has Svejk and Catch 22 all over it.

[llamaimperative]

But it is not. It's quite real! It makes a lot of sense... it's exactly the type of stuff that frustrates people [because it slows down the organization] but happens a lot [because it's not easily detectable/fireable].

[rightbyte]

I don't question the authenticity, just the intent of the author.

[joe_the_user]

Yeah, professional saboteurs only target key systems since incidental systems are constantly experiencing the kind of "sabotage" the site talks about but mostly through laziness, incompetence and bureaucratic fief assertion.

[yardstick]

Posted on April Fools… intentional or ?