Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Cyber-warfare

Cyber-warfare (also known as cybernetic war, or cyberwar) is the use of computers and the Internet in conducting warfare in cyberspace.

Types of attacks

There are several methods of attack in cyber-warfare, this list is ranked in order of mildest to most severe.

"Cyber Espionage': Cyber espionage is the act or practice of obtaining secrets (sensitive, proprietary of classified information) from individuals, competitors, rivals, groups, governments and enemies for military, political, or economic advantage using illegal exploitation methods on internet, networks, software and or computers.

Web vandalism: Attacks that deface web pages, or denial-of-service attacks. This is normally swiftly combated and of little harm.
Propaganda: Political messages can be spread through or to anyone with access to the internet.
Gathering data: Classified information that is not handled securely can be intercepted and even modified, making espionage possible from the other side of the world. See Titan Rain and Moonlight Maze.
Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks: Large numbers of computers in one country launch a DoS attack against systems in another country.
Equipment disruption: Military activities that use computers and satellites for co-ordination are at risk from this type of attack. Orders and communications can be intercepted or replaced, putting soldiers at risk.
Attacking critical infrastructure: Power, water, fuel, communications, commercial and transportation are all vulnerable to a cyber attack.
Compromised Counterfeit Hardware: Common hardware used in computers and networks that have malicious software hidden inside the software, firmware or even the microprocessors.''

Reported threats

The Internet security company McAfee stated in their 2007 annual report that approximately 120 countries have been developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon and the targets are financial markets, government computer systems and utilities.

In activities reminiscent of the Cold War, which caused countries to engage in clandestine activities, intelligence agencies are routinely testing networks looking for weaknesses. These techniques for probing weaknesses in the internet and global networks are growing more sophisticated every year.

Jeff Green the senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs was quoted as saying "Cybercrime is now a global issue. It has evolved significantly and is no longer just a threat to industry and individuals but increasingly to national security." They predicted that future attacks will be even more sophisticated. "Attacks have progressed from initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage,"

The report from McAfee says that China is at the forefront of the cyber war. China has been accused of cyber-attacks on India and Germany and the United States. China denies knowledge of these attacks. Arguments have been expressed regarding China’s involvement indicating, in the methods of computer Hackers who use zombie computers, it only indicates that China has the most amount of computers that are vulnerable to be controlled.

In April 2007, Estonia came under cyber-attack in the wake of relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn. Estonian authorities, including Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet accused the Kremlin of direct involvement in the cyberattacks . Estonia's defense minister later admitted he had no evidence linking cyber attacks to Russian authorities .

Known attacks

The United States had come under attack from computers and computer networks situated in China and Russia. See Titan Rain and Moonlight Maze. It is not clear if attackers originated in those countries or used compromised computers there.

On May 17, 2007 Estonia came under cyber attack. The Estonian parliament, ministries, banks, and media were targeted.

On first week of September 2007, The Pentagon and various French, German and British government computers were attacked by hackers of Chinese origin. The Chinese government denies any involvement.

On 14 December, 2007 the website of the Kyrgyz Central Election Commission was defaced during its election. The message left on the website read "This site has been hacked by Dream of Estonian organization". During the election campaigns and riots preceding the election, there were cases of Denial-of-service attacks against the Kyrgyz ISPs.

In the second week of April hackers hacked the Indian MEA computers.

Georgia fell under cyberattacks during the 2008 South Ossetia War.

Cyber counterintelligence

Cyber counterintelligence are measures to identify, penetrate, or neutralize foreign operations that use cyber means as the primary tradecraft methodology, as well as foreign intelligence service collection efforts that use traditional methods to gauge cyber capabilities and intentions.

The intelligence community is coming to grips with the challenge of cyber warfare intelligence. Much of the advanced infrastructure used in traditional warfare, like satellite imagery, is ineffective in the realm of cyber. New techniques and technologies are required for intelligence agencies to operate in this field.

In May 2008, U.S. Strategic Command's - Col. Gary McAlum chief of staff - of the command's Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations, quoted approvingly from a new intelligence report by Kevin Coleman of the Technolytics Institute that stated China aims to achieve global "electronic dominance." This report was not released to the public, however it was clear that cyber warfare intelligence was being collected and used to assess the cyber weapons capabilities of each country.