...Living in the Age of Cyber Attacks and Cyber Warfare UMUC If you asked the average person on the street about cybersecurity and cyber warfare, they would probably say they don’t know much about it other than the fact that it involves computers. In fact, for anyone outside of the cybersecurity industry, the closest thing to cyber warfare that they may have experienced was their viewing of the movie War Games, or the fourth installment of the Die Hard series, Live Free or Die Hard. While those movies had a profound impact on the lives of the characters in the script, the audience probably thought it was merely fiction, not fully based on fact. In Live Free or Die Hard, John McClain (played by the indefatigable Bruce Willis) is attempting to stop a domestic cyber-terrorist who is acting out on a vendetta against the United States. The cyber-terrorist is successful in launching an online attack to overload and destroy a power grid that left much of America’s East Coast in darkness. When I first saw this movie, I was curious if an attack like that was really possible; however, most people around me just labeled the movie as “Hollywood’s overactive imagination”. With cyber attacks literally having the ability to affect lives in a nanosecond, it is vital that everyone understand what cyber attacks entail, the impact of these cyber attacks on a domestic and international scale, and knowing what to expect in the future while living in a world dominated by virtual experiences...
Words: 2352 - Pages: 10
...pilfer industrial secrets. But faced with rising intrusions against computers that run America’s military systems and its essential infrastructure — its power grid, for instance, and its telecommunications networks — the military here (and elsewhere) sees disruptive software as an essential new tool of war. According to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the 15 countries with the biggest military budgets are all investing in offensive cyber capabilities. The latest step occurred last month when the United States sent out bids for technologies “to destroy, deny, degrade, disrupt, corrupt or usurp” an adversary’s attempt to use cyberspace for advantage. The Air Force asked for proposals to plan for and manage cyberwarfare, including the ability to launch superfast computer attacks and withstand retaliation. The United States, China, Russia, Britain and Israel began developing basic cyberattack capabilities at least a decade ago and are still figuring out how to integrate them into their military operations. Experts say cyberweapons will be used before or during conflicts involving conventional weapons to infect an adversary’s network and disrupt a target, including shutting down military communications. The most prominent example is the Stuxnet virus deployed in 2010 by the...
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...International Security: Cyber Warfare – notes 10/3/12 * Review * Drones * What is Cyber Warfare? * Cyberspace: Interconnected network of information systems * Cyber warfare: using cyber capabilities to disrupt information in computers of another state * Inexpensive, just need to create unique computer code * Types * Denial of Service (DoS) * Goal: shut down network * Method: flood networkd with so many extra requests it overloads * Variant: Distributed (DDoS) attack from many infected bots * “carpet bomb in cyberspace” * Variant: Permanent (PDoS) * Damagers hardware * Malicious Programs * Goal: Disrupt of gain control of target computer * Method: Open a back door for remote access * Types: * Virus: Attached to file, self-replicates * Worm: Self-replicates, travels unaided * Trojan Horse: Apparently harmless program with code inside to gain system control * Logic bomb: * Goal: Coordinate timing of an attack * Method: Watch for specific event or predetermined time to trigger malicious code * Digital Manipulation * Goal: misinform/deceive audience * Method: Digitally alter images/audio * Extent: Real-time video, voice morphing * Cyber Espionage * Definition: Using cyber capabilities to acquire information about another...
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...The Bloodless Battlefield: Cyber-War Vernon Pratt HSM 438 18 July, 2014 Professor Stephanie Lemmon Digital battle is not only what is found on computer games, it is an all to real and costly form of combat in which the combatants and defenders alike do not suffer physical wounds but the effects of these cyber-battles can be just as deadly as any bullet fired from a gun or bomb dropped from an aircraft. Within this paper three separate cyber-warfare events are reviewed, each event is different from the other only in terms of the consequences, only the consequences were different. What is “Cyber-Warfare”? One definition of cyber-warfare is, “cyberattacks are so inexpensive and easy to mount, with few fingerprints, they will almost certainly remain a feature of modern warfare.” (Markoff, 2008). Digital battles waged within the digital world of computer systems and the world-wide-web (internet). Cheap, “It costs about 4 cents per machine,” (Markoff, 2008), so cheap that the cost of one armored tank tread (one piece of the entire treack) could finance an entire cyber-war (Markoff, 2008). The first cyber-warfare event, Estonia 2007: Following the fall/collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1990 formerly USSR controlled nation states returned to autonomous control; Estonia was one of these countries. Being released from Soviet control did not mean that the civilian population wanted to be free from the Russian government and tensions existed between pro-Estonian and pro-Russian...
Words: 1633 - Pages: 7
...Corporate/Cyber Espionage You’re the owner of ABC Candy Company and just about to debut your latest and greatest chocolate snack when your biggest rival over in Asia at XYZ Candies introduces its latest snack, that is almost a doppelganger to yours. Have you just been a victim to corporate cyber espionage or just extremely bad timing? In 2012 federal agencies alone reported 46,562 cyber security incidents compared to only 5,503 in 2006. In 6 years the number of incidents has multiplied over 8 times. (LUKAS, 2013) And what is the cost of this to companies in the U.S.? It is figured the price tag for this theft of information is at least 250 Billion dollars each year. This is significantly higher than what businesses pay each year, in federal corporate income taxes. (LUKAS, 2013) Meanwhile, McAfee provides an estimate encompassing global remediation costs to total a staggering $1 trillion per annum. (Paganini, 2013) Cyber corporate espionage attacks and threatens corporate America, government programs and individuals daily in new and unrelenting ways. But who is committing these attacks and why? How are individuals, groups, companies and even governments’ gaining access to supposed secure information? And how are you and corporate America going to detect and remove these threats from your daily lives? Let’s first start with just the basic definition of just what is corporate cyber espionage Cyber espionage is defined as the intentional use of computers or digital communications...
Words: 2686 - Pages: 11
...Cyber warfare One of the first cyber-attacks was the Morris worm in the year 1988. It had affected the world cyber infrastructure. This worm utilized the weak areas of UNIX system Noun1. This worm has replicated adversely and slowed down the computers in all of the US and made them unusable. Cyber warfare has become a societal issue now. Though the roots of cyber warfare aimed at military areas primarily, it extended its effects to non-military areas too. The information infrastructure based companies have become victimized due to abundant availability of cheap cyber weapons over internet. This resulted in economic instability. Libicki classified information warfare into seven categories. They are intelligence based warfare, economic information warfare, hacker warfare, psychological warfare, electronic warfare, command and control warfare and cyber warfare. CSI and CERT information reflects that securities incidents are common, private firms are the major targets and much of these security incidents never receive public acknowledgement (Geeks et al., 2010). Several tools in the cyber warfare are developed based on Windows and are available free of cost. They require a minimal understanding about the technology frames. Many of the network organizations today are using well developed proxy servers, intrusion detection systems and firewalls. However these defensive systems are often configured improperly and carried known vulnerabilities. This weakness gave an opportunity even...
Words: 1988 - Pages: 8
...Computers have modernized terrorism in the same way cyber terrorism revolutionized information warfare. There is no distinct definition of Cyber terrorism; however, its threat is as real as waging war but with weapons of automation. Terrorists have begun to exploit the availability of information with the malicious intent to sabotage; conversely, there are those who are not quite sure if information warfare - cyber terrorism is an actual threat. This research paper will briefly explore the history of cyber terrorism, the friend the internet has been to terrorist and how we can make the internet safer through vigilant tactics of prevention and deterrence. It will also expose the truth about cyber terrorism for the skeptic, reasons not to discount the threat, and why it is paramount their mind is changed. Information Warfare-Cyber Terrorism Did you know there were 18 cybercrime victims every second, 1058 every minute, approximately 64,000 per hour, and 1.5 million per day, that affected over 556 million people within the last year (Norton , 2012)? The internet has made it possible for terrorists to gather our public information and use it against us. As the internet matures so does the terrorist, finding ways to cripple and intimidate. The internet and terrorists have become a real hazard to the health of the cyber world. The government has implemented several organizations to help combat cyber terrorism but have not given it a clear concise definition. Skeptics...
Words: 3494 - Pages: 14
... Introduction In a world of ever-increasing dependence on technology and the vast amount of information that is available, it is important to look at how this dependence will shape war in the future. P.W. Singer and August Cole present how this might look in the book Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. Set in the near future the novel sets a hypothetical scenario that puts the United States at war with China and Russia. The initial conflict is a dramatic loss for America and an eye opener of the over reliance on digital systems, which begs the question, what do we do when the very systems we rely on are used against us? In my reading of the novel, I observed several key takeaways that I believe have great value in successfully fighting future wars and on growth as leaders. This review will discuss three main ideas that were present throughout the book and how to apply them to the present, as well as, mitigate them in the future. Part One will discuss how the authors build a view of technological dependence and how it impacts the conflict within the book. In this part, I will delve into the systems we use and the way forward. Part Two covers complacency; both the aggressor and the defender demonstrate complacency throughout the aforementioned conflict. In this piece, I will discuss how complacency leads over confidence in ones abilities and disregard for the opposition. Part Three investigates Mission Command and its consequence on the antagonists. Here,...
Words: 1244 - Pages: 5
...An attack against a computer system or network is how PC Magazine defines a cyber-attack. A Cyber-attack can take many forms, for many reasons and can be executed on a small or large scale. Most cyber-attacks are criminal in nature. These cybercrimes are usually motivated by profit. Recent examples include the cyber-attacks on Visa/MasterCard and attacks on Google’s network by China. The cyber-attacks on Visa and MasterCard were part of “operation payback”, and were carried out by various loose nit groups that organized using social networking sites. “Operation payback” was retaliation against Visa and MasterCard for refusing to continue to do business with the website WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks posted leaked classified U.S. diplomatic communications on their website for the world to see. The United States felt this was a criminal act and pressured Visa and MasterCard to stop processing transactions for WikiLeaks. In response hackers launch “operation payback” which used distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to crash Visa and MasterCard Servers. Google recently exited the Chinese market. According to the New York Times, “Google linked its decision to sophisticated cyber-attacks on its computer systems that it suspected originated in China and that were aimed, at least in part, at the Gmail user accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The attacks were directed at some 34 companies or entities, most of them in Silicon Valley, California, according to people with knowledge of...
Words: 2021 - Pages: 9
...Cyber-Attack Prevention As cyber-criminals become cleverer with the cybercrimes, more and more individuals are in danger of a cyber-attack. The threats become more intense and damaging as technology grows. Often times, home users think computing and surfing the Internet is safe when at home. It is a necessity to be aware of the prevention methods whether at home or at work. To further the comprehension of cyber-attack prevention, an article is chosen and an evaluation is the article. The evaluation of an article will include a stance on the quality of the material, selections of various aspects, descriptions of each aspect, reasons for an individual viewpoint, and an example. Article Summary Home users need to practice prevention methods when using the Internet at home. Cyber-criminals’ methods and targets have evolved (Damico, 2009). Several home users may not be aware that any connection to a network is networked activity and requires some measure of protection. According to the Damico (2009) article, a prevention system must identify and stop malicious attacks before they do damage and have a chance to infect a system. It is not only imperative to use prevention methods, but also it is imperative to understand prevention methods. Technology prevention methods will no longer be adequate to protect against the modern cyber-criminals of today. Material Quality The quality of the material is credible. The article is valid. The author uses more than one in-text citation...
Words: 722 - Pages: 3
...Robert Jones (829744) Although cyber warfare tends to be thought of as a fictional concept, it is progressively becoming something that we might concern ourselves with, in an age engulfed in technology. If we ever have to truly concern ourselves with a potential cyber war, we will likely look back at a virus, created a couple of years ago, that became known as Stuxnet. At this point, very few people know of Stuxnet, and, even the ones that do know aren’t quite sure where it originated, which is a bit concerning. Because of its target on Iran’s nuclear program, many people suspect that the U.S., Israel, or Jordan could have created the virus, but no one knows for sure. While there are many different viruses out there in the world, Stuxnet was one of the most unique ever created. Ralph Langner discovered that Stuxnet had two components, and many suspect him as a possible source for the virus. In addition to its two components, there were many other aspects that made Stuxnet unique. Due to its frequent updates, Stuxnet had four zero day exploits, which is unheard of. These updates helped prevent collateral damage, giving Stuxnet the ability to focus on the machinery that it wanted to take out without affecting surrounding sources. The virus was able to focus on this machinery because it was searching for programmable-logic controllers, made by Siemens. Stuxnet was unique in that it had access to genuine signatures, meaning it did not have to create false signatures like most viruses...
Words: 380 - Pages: 2
...CYBER WARFARE 1. Introduction. Lights flicker and then go down across the city. Frightened people reach for the phone but find there is no dial tone. Fire fighter moving in area but no water available, Miles away in a military base, radar screen blinks off for number of missiles and aircrafts appearing on screen. Confusion grows, tanks begin to move across the streets, all communication systems collapse and people are sitting as blind. What is this all about, it is a cyber-attack acting as a force multiplier. 2. Cyber warfare is an outcome of information age technologies like satellites, electronic mailing system, internet, computers and micro-chips. Advancements in these technologies have converted the planet earth into a global village affecting all facets of human activity including warfare. Cyber warfare can influence all three components of the nation-state: the people, the government, and the military. This is a new paradigm of warfare in which there is no need to send a formation of soldiers or a fleet of warships, instead computer viruses and logic bombs in microprocessor control units and memory chips, may cause a wide spread disruption of every tier of society including military systems. 3. Cyber warfare, which is a new battle concept in the information age, was first used by US forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. That effort was primitive and was limited only to the reading of E-mail sent between Iraqi commanders. US Air Force used sophisticated tools...
Words: 4308 - Pages: 18
...Cyber warfare had been around ever since technology revolutionized itself. The US discovered infiltrations in the computer systems that could have made a lot of serious damages. This incident was named the Moonlight Maze, in which hackers were able to gather thousands of files from government agencies, The Pentagon, NASA, private universities, and research labs. These attacks were traced back to Russian internet addresses, but Russia denied any involvement with sponsoring the attacks. Another incident was when a hacker from the Philippines released the “Love Letter” virus around the world, 1000 files in NASA were damaged. The cost of the recovery ranged from $4 billion to $15 billion. Since the United States does not have a strategy for punishment in the cyber world, it remains vulnerable to hackers. Especially now that penetrating through a cyber security system had become more attainable. The FBI can be a huge asset into fighting cyber-crime but argued that they lack the necessary money, people and technology needed for cyber defense. Technology has been aggressively growing and cyber defense should be included in the national defense. Although the Pentagon has the resources for this type of defense, they remain hesitant into taking this role. Hackers with malicious intentions could get into the government system and send out fake commands resulting in chaos. In order to have an effective defense system in the cyber world, one must detect whoever is responsible...
Words: 292 - Pages: 2
...Cyberwarfare and US Defense Policy Society accesses cyberspace worldwide and its use plays an integral role in our daily lives. Users on computer networks and the internet constantly send information that is used by the general public, private companies, and various governments. This rapid expansion of cyberspace has accelerated the growth of our society but has exposed a new frontier of national security. Cyberspace is now a complex environment in which the privacy, integrity, and security of private and government networks easily compromised. Without major advances in cyber security tactics, networks vital to American infrastructure cannot protect themselves from growing cybercrime threats and state-sponsored intrusions [1]. An inherent problem with cybersecurity is the inability to determine the identity and origin of an attack due to the vast number of internet and network users [2]. Because of this issue, various government agencies created methods of dealing with cybersecurity but they all lack for a unified strategic approach. Additionally, the US lacks explicit doctrine that addresses how the US should structure itself to handle national cyberspace defense. This review will clarify what constitutes as a cyber attack and define cyberwarfare, establish the credibility of cyber threats, and examine the current US cyberspace defense policy. [1] R. J. Harknett, J. P. Callaghan and R. Kauffman, "Leaving Deterrence Behind: War-Fighting and National Cybersecurity...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
...Kosovo 1999: The First Cyberwar Kosovo 1999: The First Cyberwar Up until now, wars and conflicts have been fought on domestic and foreign battlefields. As computers become more essential to our daily lives, they also become the new battlegrounds of a new type of war-“cyberwar”. With the rapid progression of technology, wars are no longer only fought with rifles and bombs but with scripts and codes. Although the definition and guidelines of cyberwarfare are still relatively unclear, the 1999 Kosovo conflict introduced this new concept. The 1999 Kosovo conflict was a war between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FR of Yugoslavia) and Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The KLA was formed to fight the oppression caused by the Serbians. Their tactics and methods increasingly became more brutal when they began killing Serbian police officers throughout the country (Haney, 1999). This ignited outrage and retaliation from the FR of Yugoslavia. FR of Yugoslavia began to send troops to retake KLA controlled areas. Civilian casualties caused by Serbian troops have been estimated to be roughly around 10,000. NATO then entered the conflict on humanitarian grounds. As NATO began their aerial bombing campaign, hackers, or people who illegally access a computer system (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker) disabled and took control of the international web servers. Serbian hackers attacked NATO and US government websites using the denial of service, where computer resources...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
