A New Kind of Security Threat

A new kind of warfare, cyber warfare, is a true threat to security, not just for governments, but also businesses and individuals.

Just about everyone has received one of those bogus E-Mails that appear to come from a friend in trouble in, say, London—please send me $2,000! The clumsy handiwork of petty cyber-swindlers is easy to spot, but more creative cyber-crimes against individuals, businesses and governments are perpetrated every day. And cyber-war is already a threat against which national security experts must plan.

In August 2008, Russia’s invading Soviet vintage tanks were backed by a 21st Century cyber attack on Georgia. Maintaining our security and stability suddenly became more complex than fending off the tanks and fighter jets of our gigantic neighbor. Cyber attacks can be the equivalent of special operations or air strikes against critical infrastructure.

In contrast to the time and money required to train and equip spetsnaz or air forces, high technology and online skills are now available for rent to malevolent governments, organized crime and terrorist organizations. Such skills can be used to destabilize a country’s economy and degrade its critical infrastructure. Operating along the seam between crime and war, cyber-criminals have sparked a debate among experts about whether cyber attacks should be treated as criminal acts or acts of war.

However, these are not the clowns who hijack your friend’s electronic address list to look for someone dumb enough to send them $2,000 or even more intelligent hackers seeking to vandalize your PC or steal money from your bank account. They are sophisticated criminals operating networks that can threaten global security and stability. Moreover, some states not only tolerate them but hire them.

A stark reality emerged from Russia’s August 2008 war on Georgia. After a year of study, the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit (USCCU), an independent research institute, concluded that cyber attacks were an integral part of Russia’s armed attack on Georgia.

Most of the attacks were of a type called Distributed Denial of Service attacks—DDOS. Cyber criminals take over bits of perhaps thousands of privately owned computers and lash them together into so-called botnets that then blast information at a target, rendering it unable to perform its intended service.

Report: China building cyberwarfare capabilities

WASHINGTON – China is building its cyberwarfare capabilities and appears to be using the growing technical abilities to collect U.S. intelligence through a sophisticated and long-term computer attack campaign, according to an independent report.

Released Thursday by a congressional advisory panel, the study found cases suggesting that China's elite hacker community has ties to the Beijing government, although there is little hard evidence.

The commission report details a cyberattack against a U.S. company several years ago that appeared to either originate in or come through China and was similar to other incidents also believed to be connected to the country.
SFGate

Defending virtual borders

The risk to government networks and major financial institutions from cyber warfare is increasing every day but what is being done to defend national borders?

Estonia is an online savvy state and champion of so called 'e-government,' a paperless system with many government services online. The population can even vote via the web.

In 2007 a large number of Estonian government and financial websites were brought to a standstill as they came under sustained online attack.

On 4 July 2009, US and South Korean government websites and those of certain banks and businesses ground to a halt as they came under denial of service assaults. In the United States, the Pentagon and the White House were also targeted.

These cyber attacks were all initially thought to be orchestrated by countries unfriendly to Estonia, South Korea and the US and to date have been the highest profile examples of so-called cyber warfare.

Digital battlefield

Conventional warfare relies on tanks, troops, artillery, aircraft and a whole gamut of weapons systems. Cyber warfare requires a computer and an internet connection.

Professor Sommer claims that most of the attacks are over the internet

Rather than sending in the marines, the act of typing a command on a keyboard can have a devastating effect on computer systems and networks.

According to Clive Room of Portcullis Computer Security: "It is possible to bring an entire state to a standstill theoretically and we've seen it done on a small scale practically, so the threat ahead of us is very big indeed."

From criminal gangs trying to steal cash, to foreign intelligence services trying to steal secrets, the threat of cyber warfare is now very real.

Nato suspects that along with the tanks and troops involved in the conflict in Georgia in 2008, Russian forces also engaged in cyber attacks against Georgian government computer systems.

Professor Peter Sommer of the London School of Economics explained that cyber warfare should just be seen as a part of modern warfare in general:

"[Carl Von] Clausewitz said war is diplomacy conducted by other means. What cyber warfare gives you is a whole range of new types of technologies which you can apply."

Zombie machines

These international attacks are not isolated instances. Everyday government and corporate websites fend off thousands of attempts to infiltrate hack and cause disruption.
BBC News