Page 25 - CDM Cyber Warnings November 2013

It is well documented that Russia was the alleged aggressor in the vast distributed denial-of-
service (DDOS) attacks on both Estonia in April, 2007 and Georgia in August, 2008. Also, in the

‘Moonlight Maze’ incident in which the United States government discovered the probing of a
number of systems belonging to the Pentagon, NASA, United States Department of Energy and
some military-linked civilian universities. The United States has been equally active with

pursuing an offensive cyber policy. Alongside the generously budgeted U.S. Cyber Command,
the U.S. government are explicit in their intention to use cyber weapons as a means of attack.

The ‘Stuxnet worm’ is a telling example of the potential damage that could have crippled Iran’s
nuclear facility at Natanz (an attack widely attributed to both the U.S. and Israeli states). The
culturally secret state of China has remained typically discreet in its activity within the fifth
domain. Through the ‘Titan Rain’ operation, it succeeded in gaining access to U.S. systems,

managing to obtain the U.S. Army’s Falconview flight planning software, specifications for a
U.S. Army aviation-planning system and schematics of the NASA Mars Reconnaissance

Orbiter. It is now educating specialist soldiers in ‘cyber warfare’ through digital libraries.

Whilst these examples have not resulted in any fatalities or damage, they are harbingers of an

inevitable conflict. This fast-emerging domain of warfare will be: easy, cheap, destructive and
effective. For the first time in the history of human conflict, cyber actors will be able to precisely

manage collateral damage to a much enhanced level of predictability. It is likely to become a
popular form of warfare and it will gain a plethora of public support. After all, it requires no
physical military presence and has much lower costs – the treasury will be pleased, blood and

treasure saved! More significantly it will introduce a multitude of new actors for “In this arena,
there's no such thing as a superpower anymore”, according to International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré when speaking to the Geneva press club.

Although I think the Secretary-General overstates his case, he is right to highlight that it will
pave the way for emerging and possibly unstable states to become a dominant force.

Currently, governments and institutions define their cyber policies using colloquial terminology
or inchoate classifications. Disregarding the requirement to develop an agreed set of definitions

and international laws for what is and what-is-not acceptable in cyberspace is simply
irresponsible. This somewhat laissez-faire attitude that is pandemic across the international
community is typified in the response from James Attwood, Assistant Head – Cyber Policy, UK

Ministry of Defence. In a letter to me he states: “As each actor has their own motives and
means of attack, it is not useful to break each out, but rather to look at the holistic threat that we
25 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – November 2013 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide