Combat Studies Group

In the interest of spreading useful information regarding tactics/training I wanted to relay this conversation I had with some folks from the tactical community a while back. I was asked several pointed questions which I do my best to answer below: Question 1: Of all the various training disciplines available, which one should be top of the training list right now in light of world events? Rifle training? Land Navigation? Communications? Patrolling , etc... Answer: Well, there are definitely some sacred cows on that list. It of course kind of depends on where you are as an individual with regard to the various skillsets, but lets assume you are a competent shooter with some basic fieldcraft under your belt....I would put information gathering on top. You could also label it Intel/Comms if you wanted. Why? 1. Intelligence drives the fight. Without it, you are just a bunch of armed guys in the woods. 2. Everyone can do it. Your 75 year old aunt can do it, your kid can do...

 So I know the question is out there....why is this website supposedly devoted to the study of warfare always talking about computer security and cryptocurrency? Shouldn't I just be posting articles about "improving your shot group" or the latest in "tactical accoutrements"? It essentially boils down to this: 1. As anyone who has attended my courses knows, I believe in what I call "The Heinlein Doctrine" (or the Competent Man principal). In essence, a warrior (or just a human being for that matter) must be good at everything...not just shooting, or grappling, or navigating. 2. Right now, technology is at the forefront of not just battle, but our everyday lives....like it or not. 3. Many believe that war lies in the not too far future of the western world. I believe that this war has already begun. Perhaps not the shooting part, but the IPB (Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace) has begun in earnest in the technical space. We ignore t...

As I have been pointing out in the GroundRod courses for years, your printer can "tattle" on you.  Case in point: "According to Rob Graham, who writes for the blog Errata Security, the Intercept’s scanned images of the intelligence report contained tracking dots — small, barely visible yellow dots that show “exactly when and where documents, any document, is printed.” Nearly all modern color printers feature such tracking markers, which are used to identify a printer’s serial number and the date and time a page was printed." Full  article So the most recent NSA leaker was rather quickly outed due to barely visible yellow dots that are surreptitiously placed into every document printed by nearly every printer in existence. I encourage you to check out the EFF's guide  HERE  for finding and decoding your printer's secret messages.

The GroundRod Primer course for CDA, Idaho is completely full and we have 2 seats left for GroundRod 2. If you did not make it into this class we have some upcoming dates in the Northwest: - June 15-18    Eugene, OR - July 6-9         Prosser, WA - July 14-17     Buffalo, WY *** Outside the NW: - July 29-30        LasVegas, NV  (after Blackhat 2017) - August 10-13   Scranton, PA Reserve your spot before they fill up.

As many of you are aware, a rather onerous firmware exploit was discovered in February that affects most modern Intel processors. The exploit has been dubbed "Silent Bob Is Silent" and can grant an adversary remote access to your computer beneath the OS level. This not only affect Windows machines but Mac and Linux as well. “The exploit is trivial, max five lines of Python, could be doable in one-line shell command. It gives full control of affected machines, including the ability to read and modify everything. It can be used to install persistent malware (possibly in firmware), and read and modify any data. For security servers, it may allow disabling security features, creating fake credentials, or obtaining root keys. …  IT folks, KEEP WORKING THROUGH THE WEEKEND, DISABLE AMT NOW or block access to it. This can get ugly.” Read the full piece   HERE The linked post will cover some methods for determining if your system is vulnerable. It should be noted that the In...

Those leaked NSA TAO tools have been in the wild for a few weeks now.....and now we have this. "According to CrowdStrike's vice president of intelligence Adam Meyers, the initial spread of WannaCry is coming through spam, in which fake invoices, job offers and other lures are being sent out to random email addresses. Within the emails is a .zip file, and once clicked that initiates the WannaCry infection. But the most concerning aspect of WannaCry is its use of the worm-like EternalBlue exploit. "This is a weapon of mass destruction, a WMD of ransomware. Once it gets into an unpatched PC it spreads like wildfire," he told Forbes. "It's going through financials, energy companies, healthcare. It's widespread." Given the malware is scanning the entire internet for vulnerable machines, and as many as 150,000 were deemed open to the Windows vulnerability as of earlier this month, WannaCry ransomware explosion is only expected to get worse over ...

Blackhat 2017 Info I will be attending the 2017 Blackhat convention in Vegas July 22-27. If there is interest I can schedule a GroundRod course in Las Vegas to run right after the conference. Any interested parties email me and we will see if we can make it happen.