cyber warfare: a prominent threat to the world’s infrastructure

8/3/2019 Cyber Warfare: A Prominent Threat to the World’s Infrastructure

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Cyber warriors stand to be the new Patton. A generation where the person who knows the

intricacies of a 30-year-old telecommunications system may just be a national hero and

international villain. The description of hacker is quickly transforming from the geeky kid in

your high school to highly-trained, closely guarded students of information security. According

to “The Journal of International Security Affairs”, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

had already organized their first Cyber Warfare units as early as 2003. A terrifying aspect to this

already worrisome notion is that due to how the Chinese government demands transparency from

many major vendors (such as our own Microsoft) they may have knowledge of software that our

government does not. A vulnerability may be discovered by cyber units of the PLA long before

any American is even able to contemplate the potential for an issue.

For a foreign government to know intricacies of software used by hundreds of millions of

computers internationally, a single flaw discovered by one government could be responsible for

launching the world’s largest attack of critical infrastructure in a single day. The consideration of

a Microsoft Office exploit, for example, could provide a quiet breach from the office of a CEO of

a major electrical computer into poorly protected internal infrastructure. Network intrusions such

as the operation ‘Titan Rain’ by the Chinese from 2003 to 2005 on U.S. and European allies of

the U.S. help to exemplify the real desires by other governments to learn our secrets and find

vulnerability in our infrastructure.

Cyber warfare has begun in places other than China though. Estonia was notably attacked

in 2007 with banks, ministries, and their parliament as targets. From those attacks, the United

States will permanently have a computer crime expert based in Estonia to help with their efforts

to prevent and defend against such attacks in the future. Battle lines are being drawn, allies are



being assembled. In these regards, Cyber warfare is no different from other wars,. In fact, one

major area where cyber warfare is generally separated from the threat of “real war” is the idea

that no deaths will result from a person sitting at a computer, typing a few commands. The

horrific truth of the matter is that the Internet may be of the the world’s greatest technological

contributions, but much as was the development of nuclear technology, may one day up-end our

very security and safety.

In 1998, during the conflict in Kosovo, the United States successfully hacked Serbian air

traffic control systems. The attacks were so successful that the United States actually had to

restrain from essentially endangering the lives of all civilians across the area. Technology has

certainly come a long way in 10 years and we are also more interconnected than ever before. In a

“60 Minutes” piece this year, retired Admiral Mike McConnell proposed the question to his

interviewer, “Can you imagine your life without electric power?”. The blackouts of 2003 in the

United States showed how quickly infrastructure can affect the daily lives of citizens. If that

incident could be controlled and executed in tandem with a physical attack on the United States,

chaos would ensue and we would be in a nearly helpless position.

Admiral McConnell also brought to light that in 2007 he considered that the United States

had, what he called, a “digital Pearl Harbor”. Terabytes of information was allegedly

downloaded by an unknown entity from all of our major governmental agencies. While

traditional warfare has a quickly identifiable attacker and obvious result, cyber warfare can be

harder to judge. We may be getting attacked right now and might not know until all of our

infrastructure is compromised and the kill-switch has been put into place. A signal sent to a dam

that misrepresents water or pressure levels could be all it takes to kill thousands of Americans.



In 2004, the United States government, through the Pentagon, announced the formation

of an Information Operations team called “Network Attack Support Staff” which is geared

towards streamlining the military cyber attack capabilities, according to the “Council of Foreign

Relations”. In 2006, the United States Air Force called cyberspace, “a warfighting domain

bounded by the electromagnetic spectrum”. While the phrasing is superficially technical, the

message is clear: the Internet and other telecommunications networks are a proving ground for

the warriors of this century. The reliance that America possesses on the Internet makes our threat

greater than most countries. China’s resources are already heavily filtered as far as what is

“allowed” by citizens, helping to create at least an enhanced security about their infrastructure.

Mitigating risk may be the only chance we have but with our economy so heavily tied to our

telecommunications infrastructure, it seems unlikely that this will occur.

The U.S. government is slated to spend $9.6B on information security contracts by 2013.

With funding like that, there seems to be hope that our country is taking these issues seriously.

However, since so much of our infrastructure is privately owned, but government regulated, it

may take longer to institute heavy-handed security policies amongst that infrastructure. For

smaller, less democratic nations, telling an electrical entity to follow guidelines, “or else”, is a

very real possibility. Within the United States, our freedoms and capitalism that we so

passionately defend in every war is again at stake. The motivation of our government to defend

its infrastructure is an obvious one, but the ability for us to do so is more complicated than would

be ideal. Regulation can often be slow to be enacted. Budgeting, even with large industry, is

often tight. While the full extent of our cyber offensive capabilities is not known to most, the

day-to-day security that we can control is a necessary must for all involved in the IT fields.



Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., who heads the Air Force's cyberoperations command

explained in a 2008 article with MSNBC that one problem with the realm of cyber warfare is

determining what constitutes an ‘act of war’. When a nation attacks our men and women on our

own soil, the United States has always been quick to act. What will it then take for us to take

similar action with cyber attacks? If our information is already being compromised and stolen in

droves, how do we define what is ‘excessive’? An example of cyber warfare deeming military

action may be as simple as disabling the power of 100,000 civilians. A direct attack on the

critical infrastructure of the United States would be a undeniable sign that action must be taken.

What if though, the 2003 power outage was that attack? Perhaps the government was just

unaware to whom it owed retaliation to? Cyber war won’t always be as straight-forward like

traditional war has been throughout the history of the world.

One area of ubiquitous technology often overlooked by your average ‘computer geek’ is

that of Industrial Control Systems (ICS). The ICS infrastructure of the United States represent

the nuts & bolts, as it were, of everything from elevators, to amusement park rides, to our power

grid. Idaho National Laboratory, a leader in ICS security, conducted ICS-related war game

exercises in a controlled environment this past April. In those exercises, they showed how a

successful attack could be carried-out on a chemical processing system. While the fluids leaked

out in their war games was harmless, a real-world chemical biohazard could endanger thousands

and inconvenience tens-of-thousands of Americans in a few short hours of work by a skilled

attacker. Scale these types of attacks throughout the United States and you have a 9/11 of critical

infrastructure with only a simple computer program doing damage that not even hijacked

commercial planes could.



Not everyone is as convinced of these threats, though. Evgeny Morozov from the

“Boston Review” wrote in mid-2009 that he felt the concerns over these threats were highly over

sensationalized. His perspective, it seems, is mostly due to the fact nothing overtly scary has

happened yet. That rationale works well until something does happen; then what? While the

impending doom of the entire world may not rest on a single computer system, the financial loss

to clean-up a cyber attack, or thousands of lives affected for long periods of time are not much

different from a normal attack from any upset nation. Battles of all sizes comprise a war and the

impact of each one should not be overlooked just because their scope isn’t all consuming like a

nuclear attack. The real threat of cyber warfare is that we can be attacked across the U.S. from

people no where near our shores, in milliseconds, rather than days or weeks.

Cyber warfare may not be “the act” that pushes a country into a full conflict, but it will

certainly be continually used to poke and prod at defenses that otherwise would be considered

safe. Our thoughts of attacking “them” on “their” land, is no more. Even if we bring the war to

another country’s borders, they can still hit us back without getting out of their chair. More so,

their chair could be 10,000 miles away. You won’t find a computer hacker taking down our

power grid in a spider hole, ready for surrender -- they don’t need to be anywhere near the ‘real’

conflict.

President Obama stated in May, 2009 that “We've failed to invest in the security of our

digital infrastructure. From now on . . . the networks and computers we depend on every day will

be treated as they should be: as a strategic national asset.” With a committed statement like that,

it stands to reason that the U.S. will not be letting its guard drop past what we have already

achieved in our apathy to secure the very infrastructure to which we introduced to the world.



The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and

private networks increased from 4,095 in 2005 to 72,065 in 2008. This number will surely rise

exponentially for years to come, continually dwarfing the previous year’s numbers. Where cyber

attacks can go unreported forever, traditional attacks are often known immediately. While the

U.S. may have not had an attack on its soil by a terrorist since 9/11, we most certainly have

through the Internet.

As the challenges for our nation to secure its digital borders continue, legislation is being

thought of to give the President larger power of the Internet, a move which is both bold and

controversial. In the “Cybersecurity Act of 2009”, the potential for the President to essentially

deem a situation where the Internet would be essentially “disconnected” due to a serious threat

has been proposed. While policy like this will surely change over the coming months, the wheels

are in motion for the digital landscape of our country to change forever. The U.S. has been a

leader since the beginning of the Internet in online communications and we may soon start

setting the bar as to how to deal with that power and responsibility.

As with any threat, the challenge of our government and its people is to find a reasonable

balance between ensuring our continued safety and the freedoms that we all have come to expect.

We all have a responsibility to protect our national infrastructure, be vigilant, and use our

intellect and strategy to secure our nation. The ocean is no longer our ally, but a conduit that

other nations run through via a trans-Atlantic cabling system. Our technology is not just our

convenience, but an open-door to our breaker boxes and faucets. The wars are changing and so

must our defenses. The coming decade will stand to define how our telecommunications may

evolve for the next 50 years. Will we as a nation be ready or will we be dealt the first major

blow? No matter what the case -- cyber warfare is coming and the threats are real.



References

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Bruno, G. (2008, Feb 27). The Evolution of Cyber Warfare. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.cfr.org/publication/15577/evolution_of_cyber_warfare.html

CNN. (2009, May 13). NASA astronaut first to 'tweet' from space. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/05/13/twitter.space/index.html

Cyberwarfare. (2009, Nov 22). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

Foxnews.com. (2009, Aug 28). Senate Bill Would Give President Emergency Control of Internet. Retrieved November14, 2009, from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/28/senate-president-emergency-control-internet/

Germain, J. (2008, Sep 16). The Winds of Cyber War. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64494.html?wlc=1258213682&wlc=1258301146

Gromov, G. (n.d.).

Roads and Crossroads of Internet History. Chapter 1, Retrieved November 14, 2009, fromhttp://www.netvalley.com/cgi-bin/intval/net_history.pl?chapter=1

Harris, S. (2009, Nov 14). The Cyberwar Plan. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20091114_3145.php

INPUT. (2008, September 17). Information Security Spending By The U.S. Federal Government Will Reach $9.6 Billion By 2013. Retrieved June 2nd, 2009, from http://www.input.com/corp/press/detail.cfm?news=1395

Jesdanun, A. (2008, Apr 07). U.S. cyberwarfare takes the offensive. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23994596/

Mazanec, B. (2009). The Art of (Cyber) War. The International Journal of Security Affairs, Volume 16 .Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2009/16/mazanec.php

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http://www.input.com/corp/press/detail.cfm?news=1395



http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20091114_3145.php


http://www.netvalley.com/cgi-bin/intval/net_history.pl?chapter=1

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/28/senate-president-emergency-control-internet/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/05/13/twitter.space/index.html


http://www.cfr.org/publication/15577/evolution_of_cyber_warfare.html



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/06/60minutes/main5555565.shtml


http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2009/16/mazanec.php

http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2009/16/mazanec.php















http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64494.html?wlc=1258213682&wlc=1258301146


























Morozov, E. (2009, Jul). Cyber-Scare. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from http://bostonreview.net/BR34.4/morozov.php

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China strengthens cyber war arsenal against United States. Retrieved November 14,2009, from http://www.ibtimes.com.au/articles/20091028/china-strengthens-cyber-war-arsenal-against-united-states.htm

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http://www.ibtimes.com.au/articles/20091028/china-strengthens-cyber-war-arsenal-against-united-states.htm




http://bostonreview.net/BR34.4/morozov.php




cyber warfare: a prominent threat to the world’s infrastructure

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