The whole article appears to be a “teaching moment,” showing how failure to pay attention to detail can cause massive failure. Kind of a, “for want of nail, the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost…” but in the network security realm.

“For want of a patch the resupply form was lost, for want of a resupply form the brigade was lost….”

Heike:
I feel a bit weird about it also.

This is chilling, if you think of it as a live fire cyberwar exercise. It’s so chilling, in fact, that I think that trailmix must be right – if the ChiCom cyber teams really are that effective, you wouldn’t expect to hear a peep.

When I started reading the article, I thought the introduction of the virus was just a part of the exercise scenario to test information security. However, the article never mentioned it as being a part of the plan.

Still feel kind of weird about this article because I do agree that it is unusual for ANY military to reveal operational vulnerabilities.

I agree, this does show how vital it is to maintain command and control during operations. The introduction of a virus at critical point, in this case resupply, can cripple a unit.