The Coming Internet Cyber War: Can We Continue to Computerize Society without Opening Pandora’s Box?

The Battlefield of the 21st Century: Cyberspace

There is an underground war going on between nations, terrorists, corporations and private individuals, even You. This war is fought in a language that few know how to read, and an even smaller number know how to write. It is waged between two forces Architects and Wolves. Defensive fortresses are designed by Architects that have skills and training to protect our most precious treasure. Cunning wolves probe every opening of these cyber fortresses and with enough time, can find a passageway inside, break down the walls from within, and gain access to the fortress keep. This underground war if fought every day on cyber space, becoming more sophisticated and competitive. Increasing numbers of experts fight to protect computer systems from those who attempt to hack into those systems. This is the new battleground of the twenty-first century: Cyberspace.

These battles can be simple or sophisticated, whether from identity theft and password cracking, to attacks on banking or state infrastructure.  Cyber hackers are sometimes the “good guys” in this war, they can fight for justice. These hacker heroes are found in China where the state oppresses and hides search engine results, shuts down dissident websites, and continues its oppression through censorship.  Chinese hackers probe the fortresses of firewalls and blocks set up by Chinese authorities and bypass them to continue their fight for political freedoms.

This warfare can be a tit for tat battle. During the Iranian uprising in the summer of 2009, the Iranian government during their suppression campaigns attempted to block news and media from leaving and entering the country, specifically censoring social networking sites that were becoming the backdoor for dissent and protestors. In response, Iranian hackers were able to circumvent these barriers and bring moment by moment news to the world through social networking sites like twitter. Iranian hackers also went on the attack, disabling the government of Iran’s official and propaganda sites.

What our society should be concerned about is the increase in private and state terrorism in the field of cyber warfare and the effect it will have as American and World Society. As we move to greater dependency on the internet/computers for trade, banking, infrastructure, communication, socialization, news, and information, these systems are becoming more vulnerable when before they were unwired to the net or computer systems.

Military Warfare on the Internet

The attacks listed below are cyber attacks that illustrate catastrophic and threatening cyber attacks, which draw into question our continued wiring of our society opening ourselves up to these attacks. Large scale battles in this war include:

The first unclassified nation vs. nation cyber warfare attack occurred between an unknown entity (believed to be Russia but still unknown) and Estonia in 2007. Estonia, a highly wired society, was bombarded for a period of 3 weeks with cyber attacks which took control of government websites, computers, and critical state operations. The entire online banking system of Estonia was disabled for weeks.

Russia attacks on Georgian government websites, emails, news sites, and internet infrastructure occurred in August 2008. Georgia’s connection with the outside world was cut off, and the government was put in turmoil as Russian tanks moved across the border. Georgia was left helpless resulting in its military defeat. Russia’s victory demonstrates the effect of cyber bombs can have in combination with military and political operations.

The most significant and sophisticated cyber weapon to date, was discovered this summer and designated Stutnex. This computer worm was discovered in national infrastructures throughout Europe and Asia, as well as Iranian nuclear computer systems. Recent research on the weapon shows that it is a highly sophisticated weapon designed to shutdown and disable state infrastructure by taking control of those computer systems. The worm was highly covert and jumped through portable media drives to once thought isolated systems. It was intended for a specific target which is yet unknown.

Warnings for America

The disabling of Estonia’s economic sector and crippling of its national computer systems and the complete disabling of Georgia’s cyberspace in preparation for military attack, show a clear vulnerability of cyber, economic and political infrastructure. The recent release of the Stutnex virus shows an even scarier possibility that real world infrastructure that we rely on for our survival; electrical systems, nuclear power plants, dams, safety programs, water, sanitation, can be sabotaged through cyber attacks.

In an age where individual’s daily lives are becoming increasingly wired onto electronic devices and increasingly computerized infrastructure to sustain those lives is the trend, the possibility of catastrophic cyber attack increases. If we continue this progress, a future American or Europe could be brought to a complete halt, shutting down our banking, online business’s and electrical power. The increasing calls for a smart grid for power and resource management makes this possible reality even more real. While the benefits for the system are realized through decreased costs and conservation of energy, a major security risk could arise where our electrical grid can become an easier target for cyber attacks.

We don’t have to worry about terminators turning on humanity but we must be prepared to deal with man’s most dangerous enemy, his fellow man. If we continue to allow an increased wiring of infrastructure that keeps people alive, the risks of falling victim to attack and real world detriment increases. Every encryption can eventually be broken with enough time and persistence, so defense will never be foolproof. This does not mean we should not take advantage of this computerized information age! Planners should consider keeping parallel and when able, manual hack-proof backups to sustain us. Let us be cautious when we follow a path of “progress” and integration and ignore the threats of increasing cyber attacks.

Sources:

Stuxnet Virus Info Christian Science Monitor

US Cyber Warfare and Smart Grid Wall Street Journal

Iran Cyber Warfare BBC

Estonia Cyber Attacks The Guardian