[LINK] cyber cold war preparation

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Wed Nov 18 09:45:31 AEDT 2009


Report: Countries prepping for cyberwar
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/17/cnet.cyberwar.internet/index.html?eref=rss_world&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_world+%28RSS%3A+World%29
By Elinor Mills
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

     * McAfee: Countries are amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage
     * Report based on interviews with experts in international 
relations, security
     * Experts are seeing increased intelligence gathering, according to report
     * Threats of cyberwarfare have been debated for decades

(CNET) -- Major countries and nation-states are engaged in a "Cyber 
Cold War," amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage, and testing 
networks in preparation for using the Internet to conduct war, 
according to a new report to be released on Tuesday by McAfee.

In particular, countries gearing up for cyberoffensives are the U.S., 
Israel, Russia, China, and France, the says the report, compiled by 
former White House Homeland Security adviser Paul Kurtz and based on 
interviews with more than 20 experts in international relations, 
national security and Internet security.

"We don't believe we've seen cases of cyberwarfare," said Dmitri 
Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee. "Nations 
have been reluctant to use those capabilities because of the 
likelihood that [a big cyberattack] could do harm to their own 
country. The world is so interconnected these days."

Threats of cyberwarfare have been hyped for decades. There have been 
unauthorized penetrations into government systems since the early 
ARPANET days and it has long been known that the U.S. critical 
infrastructure is vulnerable.

However, experts are putting dots together and seeing patterns that 
indicate that there is increasing intelligence gathering and building 
of sophisticated cyberattack capabilities, according to the report 
titled "Virtually Here: The Age of Cyber Warfare."

"While we have not yet seen a 'hot' cyberwar between major powers, 
the efforts of nation-states to build increasingly sophisticated 
cyberattack capabilities, and in some cases demonstrate a willingness 
to use them, suggest that a 'Cyber Cold War' may have already begun," 
the report says.

Because pinpointing the source of cyberattacks is usually difficult 
if not impossible, the motivations can only be speculated upon, 
making the whole cyberwar debate an intellectual exercise at this 
point. But the report offers some theories.

For instance, Alperovitch speculates that the July 4 attacks 
denial-of-service on Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea could have 
been a test by an foreign entity to see if flooding South Korean 
networks and the transcontinental communications between the U.S. and 
South Korea would disrupt the ability of the U.S. military in South 
Korea to communicate with military leaders in Washington, D.C., and 
the Pacific Command in Hawaii.

"The ability of the North Koreans to disable cybercommunications 
between the U.S. and South Korea would give them a huge strategic 
advantage" if they were to attack South Korea, he said.

There have been earlier attacks that smack of cyberwarfare too. 
Estonian government and commercial sites suffered debilitating 
denial-of-service attacks in 2007, and last year sites in Georgia 
were attacked during the South Ossetia war, orchestrated by civilian 
attackers, the report says.

The report concludes that if we aren't seeing it already, 
cyberwarfare will be a reality soon enough.

"Over the next 20 to 30 years, cyberattacks will increasingly become 
a component of war," William Crowell, a former NSA deputy director, 
is quoted as saying. "What I can't foresee is whether networks will 
be so pervasive and unprotected that cyberwar operations will stand alone."
Report: Countries prepping for cyberwar - CNN.com (18 November 2009)



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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