Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Cyber War

If the world is a logical place, it follows that as computerised systems take more control of our lives and as the Internet becomes the main forum for communication and the sharing of ideas, that cyber space could become the new battleground for nations to exercise their muscles.

Cyber War is upon us might be the new worry, but actually, what does it mean? How does the 'war' manifest itself and is the world heading for some Terminator-like scenario as the computers eventually brush aside frail humans and begin to think it would be much more fun to rule the planet themselves?

So, lets have a look at different aspects of cyber war. At one end of the scale is the subversive techniques, which include setting out to destroy certain web-sites, create damaging email scams, or spitting out propaganda via innocent looking and so-called independent web-sites. Arguably this happens on a daily basis already, with governments and various groups (lobbyists, activists and terrorists) constantly trying to win the hearts and minds of the nations by explaining and justifying their version of events.

Few people these days don't bear their grudges via the Internet and whereas before governments might be able to claim the upper hand by controlling their particular media, now everyone can establish a web-site and deliver their view and rant on life.

In the middle of the scale of cyber war techniques comes cyber espionage. Having James Bond running around the world clocking up horrendous expenses and causing a lot of explaining to do, is just now so old hat. Why not turn your computer on and get some clever computer geek to hack into someone else's mainframe and get all the information they want. Everyone from the military to business people will tell you that their systems are safe and secure, and impossible to exploit. Wrong, any computerised system is vulnerable to attack, especially one that communicates to the outside world via a network. You've just got to hope that the programmers are as savvy as the hackers and that they can keep the bad boys out. But recent media stories about spotty teenagers hacking into U.S military computers are arguably very frightening indeed.

And at the nasty end of the cyber war scale is the all out attack on a countries infra-structure via the web. Basically, if you can hack into another country's system, you can run riot and cause far more damage than a group of lone terrorists.

Think what you could do if you hade free rein inside a bank's computer system (draining all the accounts for example), or if you could take control of a country's power system (shutting down power plants, or turning off gas), or accessing military control computers (controlling submarines, or bombers during a mission).

And yes, that might just sound a bit fanciful, a bit like a Hollywood film plot, but Internet security firm McAfee recently issued a report that some 120 countries were actively researching ways of using the internet to target and attack another country's government, utility and military systems.

And the fingers of accusation have already been pointed, with China having been blamed for cyber attacks on the U.S, Germany and India. They have all been rigorously denied by the Chinese government.

But, cyber attacks have been reported, including Estonia under attack from Russia; the U.S. and Europe from China (pundits reckon that pinning the blame on China is not totally provable, although they do point out that maybe Chinese based systems are prone to be controlled by external parties and used as proxy attack method); and, most recently, Georgia from Russia.

So, cyber war might sound like the good basis of a blockbuster novel, but, unfortunately, it's now a reality and likely to get worse, in whatever guise it takes.

But the Terminator? Perhaps not quite yet.

< Back