By Claudine Beaumont, The Daily Telegraph
November 18, 2010 4:04 PM
Mystery may surround some aspects of the latest apparent "cyber
attack" against web users, but one thing is becoming abundantly
clear - the threat of cyber terrorism is a very clear
and present danger for governments and organisations
around the world.
While full-body scanners and military partnerships with
other nations might help to protect us from the physical threat
of terrorism, cyber warfare presents a unique challenge for
nation states. The fluid and evolving nature of the
Internet, and the rapid development of technologies,
means it is near impossible to monitor precisely what is
happening online, and to mitigate against all potential threats.
There is growing evidence that a number of countries are
dipping their toes in the waters of cyber terrorism, with what
appear to be state-sanctioned hacks of websites and systems, and
sophisticated attempts to breach the cyber defences of key
organisations.
China, for all its protestations of innocence, is a cause for
particular concern. Earlier this year, Google's email servers
were attacked by Chinese hackers in an effort to access
the accounts of human rights activists.
China has a notoriously fractious relationship with the web,
attempting to censor and control access to potentially
subversive websites by using the "Great Firewall of
China" to block inappropriate web traffic, while still
attempting to embrace the benefits the web brings for e-commerce
and global business.
Cyber terrorism need not mean infecting military
computers with a virus that could launch scores of rockets; a
more likely and insidious threat is to banking systems or
financial services, which could be corrupted by
malicious software and have a cataclysmic knock-on effect on a
region's economy.
There is no evidence that China Telecoms' apparent
diversion of Internet traffic via its servers had any sinister
edge to it. But, much in the same way as Russia sends
its bombers on frequent sorties close to British airspace to
probe at the country's defences and provide a show of strength,
so too it is increasingly likely that hackers, whether
actively sanctioned or simply not discouraged by their
governments, are testing the robustness of our cyber defences.
Governments and security experts face an uphill battle
to keep them out.
Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Cyber+terrorism+proving+uphill+b\
attle/3850531/story.html
