Cyber Warfare: The upcoming threat to a Nation’s Security and what can done to deal with it

What is a Cyber War ?

Cyber warfare are specialized units consisting of computer experts mostly sponsored by states who using computers to attack(hack) or defend other computers or networks through electronic means.

Usually highly skilled hackers and network experts who have adept knowledge of software programming and intricacies of computer networks are the suitable candidates for this kind of army.

Many consider cyber  warfare  as  a  viable  asymmetric  strategy  when  facing  technologically  superior adversaries.

C4I2 [command, control, communications,  computer,  information,  and  interoperability] infrastructure;  and  mobility.”

Both Mahamati Chanakya ( An Ancient Strategy genius) as well as Sun Tzu (An ancient Chinese war strategist) opined “Making the enemy surrender without battle is the best war strategy where after the war the booty is the highest, since nothing is destroyed.” 

The real purpose of cyber warfare is to “force the enemy side to regard our goal as their goal,”  and  to  “force  the opponent  to  give up the will to resist and end  the  confrontation and  stop fighting  by  attacking  an  enemy’s  perception  and  belief  via  information  energy.

A lot of activity in this domain is seen among the Chinese Armed Forces establishment, they call it Acupuncture warfare which has been defined as “paralyzing the enemy by attacking the weak link of his command, control, communications and information as if hitting his acupuncture point in kung fu combat.”

Typically cyber warfare strategy has three major components - Surveillance, Attack and Defense.

Surveillance can be by Network or Electromagnetic. This helps to collect information  on  potential  targets  and  develop  an  attack  plan  against  critical  infrastructure.

Attack of critical computer information is to disrupt, sabotage and destroy information in enemy  computer  network  systems  using  specialized  equipment,  software  or  firepower.

Defense  refers  to  prevention  of  enemy  surveillance  and  attack  options  against  own computer  systems and networks.

Key to Cyber Warfare

-          A well defined doctrine

-          An Impressive budget to Implement this doctrine

-          A well connected Polity, Military Establishment and Academia

-          A systematic training program for selected personnel

-          A Strong R & D cell to constantly update the technology

-          An aggressive effort to continuously pry into other’s domains

Some popular Cyber warfare strategies (8 fold)

-          Planting information mines for mass disruption

-          Conducting information reconnaissance for Information spying

-          Modifying network data for misdirecting information

-          Mass Release of  Intended information  bombs for spreading propaganda information

-          Dumping information  garbage for Jamming networks

-          Decoy information  deception

-          Cloning  information

-          Establishing network spy stations.

Three areas of Vulnerabilities

-          Critical Infrastructure

-          Economic and Financial

-          Military and National Security

Recent Cyber Attack References
-          The biggest known attack so far is a Joint US-Israel strike on Iranian Nuclear Enrichment capacity, which had an impact of close to two years in the Iranian nuclear enrichment centrifuges. Some although dispute this claim. The malwares were developed under a project called Olympic Games – Stuxnet / Flame

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      During the peacekeeping days in Kosovo, NATO and Serbian hackers attacked each other attempting to control each other’s networked electronic resources. The same occurred in other parts of the world as well during height of tension.

How popular is it globally, is it turning into a Cyber War Arms Race?

US and Russia is believed to be the leading nations in the world to possess explicit cyber-warfare capability, but there are other close to two dozen countries who have a cyber command as a cost-effective deterrent against external threats. It has indeed taken shape of an arms race.

IN US itself, more than 10,000 people work in the Cyber Command. Various national cyber commands have been routinely invading into foreign computer systems to collect intelligence, as do the normal intelligence agencies. However, these operations have involved passive information collection, not sabotage. 

More provocatively, a cyber spy may leave behind a dormant piece of malware, to signal a warning to the targeted country or institution, or to create offensive options in the future.

What could be the implications, when a country cyber attacks another country? Can it escalate into a global catastrophe?

In personal or smaller scale it can do the following:

-          Invade the host computer, record key strokes, record all voice and video traffic to and from the computer

-          Take control of all data in the computer and alter data or send it to selective destination

The medium scale catastrophe could be as follows:
-          Total chaos in traffic systems especially in metro cities
-        Shutdown of power plants, substations
-          Slamming of trains in railways and aircrafts in air or in airports due to wrong signaling killing thousands of people
-          Jamming of Satellite based Television, Telephone and Mobile Networks
-         Sudden opening up of the Dam Sluice gates would wash away villages, towns and cities
-         Creating choke points in gas networks would create fire and explosion anywhere in the network – streets, homes etc
-          Publication of obscene, unlawful, politically sensitive material in the mass media creating social disturbances
-          Destruction or alteration of bank accounts or even national treasury records
-          Alteration of any kinds of electronic data of national or international significance
-          Giving wrong meteorological data to users
-          All major systems would collapse causing a social unrest in limited region or global scale

There has been quarters claiming Presidents Clinton and Bush manipulated data and drained bank accounts whose balances supported Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, to which reportedly both declined any involvement.

It can indeed turn into a global catastrophe considering there are 10,000+ Nuclear warheads  dotted around the world, which are controlled through networks, any virus or malware taking control of any one system would start a global nuclear war, bringing an end to the blue planet which we call it our home.

Bottom-line the advanced economies where technological dependence is more would be affected the most; the poorer nations who are in semi automatic or manual mode would have considerably lower effects. US would be one of the worst hit.

What can be done to enhance a country’s cyber security?

 Constant Technological Upgrade – No complacence policy

-          Eternal Vigilance – There is no wall built on this planet which cannot be breached

-          Educate Users with Administrative Authority about actions which can compromise overall security – This is one of the prime reasons of security breach, add as much safeguards possible

-          A system of early warning – Somehow detect the vulnerability before intruders find it, which means try to cyber attack your own establishment on a regular basis

-          Innovation is something which has no barrier, it is a matter of chance meeting the genius, thus wherever there is any innovative technology available buy, borrow or get it somehow.

-          Build strong bridge between amateur community, students and industry in finding innovative solutions towards security breaches.

-          In most cases when a worm or virus infection starts it spreads at lightning speed, thus where possible  need to have manual overrides to automatic systems, sometimes this helps to check the rate of spread or even stop spread.

-          GOOD LUCK J

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