Cyber attacks are becoming a more prevalent type of warfare engaged in by many entities against another. Though identifying the source of the attacks can sometimes be subjective due to the lack of technology to do so, there seems to always be a suspicion as to where the attacks came from and what the motive was. The Russian denial-of-service attack on the country of Estonia in 2007 made headline news as an act of war. The cyber attacks on Georgia in 2008 during their war with Russia were speculated to be Russian driven. Lastly, when the U.S. State Department computers of the East Asia Bureau were compromised during 2006, fingers pointed to China. “The Pentagon warned earlier this year that China’s army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon. It cited Chinese military exercises in 2005 that included hacking primarily in first strikes against enemy networks.” (Griffin, 2007). All of these three attacks have one thing in common: they all used the same silent weapon; cyber-terrorism.
Estonia is touted to be one of the most connected countries in the world. The wireless communities and government of this country were rendered helpless in a denial of service attack, due to their extreme internet dependence. It is a way of life, completing most things via a handheld or laptop, from banking to parliamentary elections. The attack affected state and commercial websites, most of which were run primarily online. Foreign and defense ministries, newspapers and banks were specific targets hit. The denial of service attack in 2007 said to be instrumented by Russia, affected ordinary citizens as well as government officials. The rippling effect was felt by a large segment of the population and caused chaos and confusion. “Officials have blocked access to the servers from outside Estonia, to prevent them from being attacked.” (Lagorio, 2006). The attacks were said to begin after a Soviet memorial statue in Tallin was
removed. The defense ministry says that some of the cyber attacks came from Russian hosted servers. Of course, Russia is not cooperating or commenting on these events.
The cyber-attacks during the 2008 South Ossetia war between Georgia and Russia coupled themselves with the bloody shooting battle taking place. The Georgian government stands firmly with their accusation of Russia for disabling Websites, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This attack which encompasses massive requests for data is called a distributed denial of service attack. “These attacks appear to be controlled from a server based at a telecommunications firm.” (Markoff, 2008). Since cyber attacks cost very little, they have taken their place in modern warfare. Georgia was vulnerable due to its dependence on Russia and Turkey for global internet connections. The United States is backing a fiber-optic network link under the Black Sea, due to happen in September. Hopefully this will solve their future issues in this area.
The computers that were compromised in the East Asia Bureau in 2006 came as a big surprise as nothing was missing. Even though nothing was physically taken, the damage from these hacks occurred from information theft. This large-scale intrusion that targeted the offices communicating with China and North Korea, involved the theft of sensitive U.S. information and passwords. Officials reported that the unclassified systems were affected while the classified areas were uncompromised. The Defense department noticed similar computer problems last summer, and considers Chinese hackers to be the culprits in that incident, as well as the above noted. “After the State Department break-ins, many employees were instructed to change their passwords. The department also temporarily disabled a technology known as secure sockets layer, used to transmit encrypted information over the Internet.” (Davis, 2007). Identifying this vulnerable area will prevent hackers from transmitting stolen data, covertly from a victim’s network. Also of note is: “Many diplomats were unable to access their online bank accounts using government computers.” (Lagorio, 2011). The problem is said to be fixed, but it was noted exactly how this was done.
Since hacking is now being viewed as an offensive weapon, this type of cyber terrorism may be a permanent occurrence to be expected by all those connected globally. “Given that most parts of the world now have access to the Internet, almost any country can fall victim to some form of cyber terrorism or information warfare.” (Taylor, 2011) Since identifying the sources of these attacks still remains problematic, it will mostly likely grow in the near future. Furthermore, since the Pentagon is already warning that China’s army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon, the evidence of this type of warfare is proven. Unfortunately, it appears that the silent weapon of cyber-terrorism is here to stay.
References
Davis, J., (2007) Wired Website, Hackers take down the most wired country in europe, retrieved February 13, 2011 from http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15- 09/ff_estonia?currentPage=all
Griffin, J., (2007) Fox News Website (2007) Pentagon source says china hacked defense computers, retrieved February 12, 2011 from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295640,00.html
Lagorio, C., (2006) CBS News Website, State department computers hacked, retrieved on February 14, 2011 from http://www.cbsnews.com/storeis/2006/07/11/national/main1794152.shtml?CMP=ILC- SearchStories
Markoff, J., (2009) New York Times Website, Georigia takes a beating in the cyber war with russia, retrieved February 11, 2011 from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11
Taylor R. W., Fritsch E., Liederbach J., & Holt T. (2010). Digital crime and digital terrorism (2nd ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
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