There has recently been a very popular topic taking over our news feeds – Cyber Warfare. According to Eugene Kaspersky “we are at the beginning of a new and dangerous era of cyber warfare”. It seems like the potential threat is so large that even the government appears to be taking steps in order to protect our nation. In fact, it is not only our government, to the best of my knowledge 12 out of 15 of the world’s largest military powers are building some sort of cyber warfare program which assess “tactics and capabilities” which shall be vital if there was ever a war in the future.
The country at the top of the accusation list for the potential to set up a cyber attack is Iran. According to U.S Air Force Space Command leader General William Shelton Iran is or will become “a force to be reckoned with”. But what do we understand “cyber warfare” to be? The guardian wrote: “Hackers now are either criminal’s out to make money, activists out to protest or governments engaged in targeting their own citizens or attacking other governments, whether for espionage or cyber warfare”. But not EVERY malicious attack falls under the category of cyber warfare. The fact is that not many people really understand what an actual cyber attack is, it’s huge! We seem to have a misconception of what we believe it is which means that most of the time we are simply being paranoid over nothing!
Take the following report for example:
“Recent cyber-attacks have illustrated the ability of terrorist groups and foreign governments to cause havoc on the Internet. The United States Sentencing Commission’s website was destroyed when activists attacked the site to protect the federal prosecution of Bart Swartz which eventually led to Mr. Swartz committing suicide. For years, the Chinese government has launched massive daily attacks against our government and private industry which are aimed at disrupting government operations, stealing trade secrets and undermining economic activity.” (Source)
Technollama use this report to show how minor incidents are blown out of proportion. The fact is that it was just a placid act of protest against a website which apparently was an example of “terrorist groups and foreign governments”. Hmm, okay then... To me this is pretty much the same as just tearing down a poster!! Major attack alert...!
This small act of protest suddenly equated to “daily attacks” according to newspapers from Chinese hackers. Really, there are ‘daily’ attacks? Where’s the evidence? There doesn’t appear to be any. It’s just a reason for more money to be sent on cyber-security measure if you ask me.
So what is Cyber Warfare?
Kaspersky defined cyber war as activity that uses cyber weapons to cause physical damage. However, this definition is not really accurate as it is possible for a cyber attack to occur without there being a physical damage. For example, imagine all the bank records of a single nation were erased, that nation could very well say that they were victim to a cyber attack even though no physical damage would have occurred. Perhaps a better definition is that given by government security expert Richard Clark in his book Cyber War. He defined cyber warfare as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption”.
Nations prepare for a Cyber War?
It has been predicted by security analysts that this year is the year that nation-sponsored cyber warfare will go mainstream. There are some that think that these attacks may even lead to actual deaths.
Back in 2012 it was discovered that there had been extensive cyber attacks targeted at the Iranian government. Due to this, it is believed that Iran has also launched attacks aimed at American banks and Saudi oil companies. Whether this information is wholly true, I do not know. But if it is, then it would appear as though a cyber ‘Cold War’ is happening already. Security companies just think that the battle will become even more intense this year. I guess we will just have to wait and see on that!
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