Cyber warfare

Question 1

What are the main aspects of cyber warfare and cyber crime?

Answer 1

• Intelligence collection (espionage)
• Disruption, DOS (Denial of Service), Mayhem in stock markets etc
• Web vandalism (defacing or hijacking websites)
• Disabling critical infrastructure (e.g. public utilities, nuclear plants, defence sites)
• Identity theft / fraud, sophisticated bank and credit card fraud
• Cyberterrorism, propaganda, psychological warfare (e.g. Al Qaeda videos)
• Intellectual property theft / industrial espionage
• Pornography, child abuse
• Viruses, adware, malware, trojans

Question 2

Who are the main actors in Cyber warfare and cyber crime?

Answer 2

-National governments
-Secret services
-Terrorist networks
-Organised criminal groups (trafficking, mafia, porn)
-Individual hackers
“There are signs that intelligence agencies around the world are constantly probing other governments’ networks, looking for strengths and weaknesses, and developing new ways to gather intelligence” (Peter Sommer, LSE)
e.g. April 2007 – the “Estonian Cyberwar”
Estonian cyber-infrastructure under attack (probably by Russia) because they relocated a Russian Red Army statue!
Total cost: 19-28 million euros
e.g. June 2007 - China hacking US government sites

Question 3

On the 2nd February 2010 what is the
Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community
for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence?

Answer 3

“Malicious cyber activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication”
“The existing balance in network technology favours malicious actors”
“Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private sector networks”
Multimedia convergence (all comms over a common network) +
Channel consolidation (concentration of personal data e.g. via Facebook)

Question 4

What did the Conflicker worm do in 2008/09?

Answer 4

-It infected 12 millions PCS
-PCs turned into “zombies” sending 10 billion spam messages daily
Conficker stopped French fighter jets from taking off
July 2010 - ongoing: Stuxnet
Affected power plants in Iran and China
6 million PCs infected in China
Suspected involvement of secret services (Israel, US)
Considered a “game changer”
Cost of hacking: $1,000,000,000,000
96% of emails sent daily = spam