Lord West of Spithead, under-secretary for security and counter-terrorism in the United Kingdom, told The Observer that the country had been the target of near-daily significant cyber attacks on government networks in 2009. He also believes these are likely to keep rising in number.
Due to the anonymous nature of the Web, it is very hard to find and prove exactly where attacks come from and who initiated them. However, these attacks are most probably the result of the work of foreign states. "There is no doubt some state actors have sucked out huge amounts of intellectual copyright, designs to whole aero engines, things that have taken years and years of development," West said. While it is hard to attribute attacks to specific people, the under-secretary did say his country was being targeted by Chinese and Russian hackers.
And it does not stop here. West is also worried that cyber terrorists could "try to use our connectivity to have a go at our critical infrastructure, things [that control] our services, our food [distribution] and water supply." Such perspective is part of what led the british government to think that it might need to retaliate at some point:"If some state sponsor keeps trying to get into your systems, probably for industrial espionage, are you going to go back into their system and bugger it up? We're all capable of doing these things. At the moment we wouldn't do that, but maybe this is where we need to have discussions." These declarations also come at a time when NATO and EU members have been advised to give particular attention to cyber security, again because of China. In fact, both of the eminent organizations have reported penetration of key offices by Chinese hackers, which have "led to restrictions in the normal flow of intelligence because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable," according to The Times. The same article also gives these details about the state of cyber defence at NATO and EU:"British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but 'the EU is less competent', James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said. 'The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy.'" As countries have united into greater ruling entities for the safety and benefit of everyone, maybe it is time for these entities--or for a newer, dedicated, and maybe larger ruling entity-- to take the lead in cyber security and warfare. An international Web safety organization might be able to establish co-ordinated protection and retaliation when needed, like NATO does with armed conflicts and EU in politics and economy.
|
