Skyping and Stryking.... Online Collaboration in the Warzone

Doug Beizer's May, 2005 article for Government Computer News, "Collaboration tools are ready for the battlefield" discusses how U.S. military units are implementing online, satellite-based collaboration software to make the sharing of critical information more efficient on the battlefield. Technology like this can be a godsend to our troops in the field, but can also be a nightmare if not secure against hackers.

Collaborative software, like Macromedia Breeze Live and Click to Meet, enables commanders in the field to transmit information and orders to superiors all at once, instead of having to have this same information relayed up and down the long chain of command ladder. Surely, this technology is saving friendly soldiers' lives.

Yet, typical of any increase in information sharing, the risk and stakes of computer piracy increase. If enemy hackers are able to gain access to such information and relay it to their comrades in arms, then the lapse in security could be extra deadly.
Also, what would the contingency be if these new, relied-upon technologies were compromised? Would the troops still be able to communicate effectively via traditional means?

This all reminds me of an interesting interview I caught on Federal News Radio's (AM 1500) daily "Cyber Security Update." In that piece, a government IT professional warned that American civilians should acknowledge what might happen if domestic telecommunication lines were compromised by a threatening nation's hackers.... perhaps, he said, the government might be forced to indefinitely shut down internet and telephone lines.

How would you react if such a contingency were ever to be put into effect? I shudder at the thought.

For the troops on the ground, this is a contingency they must constantly train for.