[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/
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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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