Cyber: The Terrorist New-Battlefield
Sparkle Grayson
American Military University

“American military superiority on the conventional battlefield pushes its adversaries toward unconventional alternatives.” - Carter, Ashton B., John Deutch, and Philip Zelikow Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. The use of terror tactics as a means of coercion, dates back to the 1st and 14th centuries AD. The first documented instance of terrorism that most resembled modern day terrorist tactics is attributed to the Zealots of Judea. This “terrorist” group showed many if not all the characteristics of modern day terrorists; being politically/religiously motivated, the organization of their group, and ultimately their goal, which was to strike fear into not only the current leaders or governing authority but into anyone who they felt agreed with the current state of politics. In short, though, their endeavor was ultimately unsuccessful, “the fact that they are remembered hundreds of years later, demonstrates the deep psychological impact they caused” (terrorism-research, 2013, n.p).
Though terrorism is often associated with physical acts of violence, the ever increasing globalization of the world, and the increasing dependency on technology has given way to a new tactic that can be destructive to property, finances, and media. Cyber-terrorism is a new occurrence but is highly effective, and until recently the United States had no formal “cyber-protection” in the private sector.
The beginning of the cyber-defense initiative is debatable. However, there is one event in recent history that often been described as the beginning of cyber warfare. The US/Chinese Spy Plane incident was not an event that garnered much media attention. However, this singular event maintains its’ position of, historical ground marker. The event occurred on April 1, 2001.The event itself involved the collision of an American surveillance plane and a Chinese Fighter craft, and really hold no significance to cyber-defense. The events immediately following the collision played a large part in the integration of cyber security into the national security agenda. Following the collision of the American surveillance plane and the Chinese fighter craft, the US saw a huge influx in cyber-attacks. The tension between nations acted as the catalyst to numerous website defacements and Denial of Services attack on government agencies and some private industries. After approximately 1,200 U.S. sites, including those belonging to the White House, the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Energy, had been subjected to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or defaced with pro-Chinese images, the attack was stopped. Although the attacks ceased this served as an eye-opener to the need for government implementation of cyber-security for our critical infrastructure, public and private sector alike.
At the end of 2001, the Bush Administration began to formulate a national plan that included cyber security, and in 2003, President Bush signed the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. However, following the tasking of the Department of Homeland Security with the cyber mission, progress was slow, regulations were never created and thus never enforced. Eventually, the Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative was created and included in National Security Presidential Decision 54.
Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) has finally made the shift towards cyber-defense. On October 1, 2009, a general took charge of the new U.S. Cyber Command military organization with the mission to use information technology and the Internet as a weapon. This new U.S initiative is not unique. Russia, China, and North Korea each have similar commands. Since the creation of the internet and its’ implementation into government operations, DoD has always maintained defensive a defense against digital attacks of government networks. The Intelligence command sector of the military has been tasked with government network defense, protecting only dot-mil and dot-gov sites. However, cybercrime has very recently been subject to consideration as acts of war, which could escalate into cyber or physical war. The United States is particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks as much of our infrastructure is digital. Electrical grids, banking systems, communication systems, mass transit and many other things are part of a networked system. People often assume that because some of these things are connected to the Internet, that they are safe from exploitation. This is certainly not the case. An example of the US’s vulnerability is the very recent “hack” of the United States Federal Reserve's Network.
On February third of 2013, hackers digitally breached the computer network that the Federal Reserve uses to communicate with bankers at times of emergency. The attack allegedly resulted in the compromise of 4,000 Federal Reserve employee and banker credentials. The culprits behind this particular attack were revealed as the activist group, Anonymous, a U.S based cyber organization, which maintains ties throughout the world. However, adversary nations have also shown intent and possess the capabilities to attack the U.S using sophisticated cyber techniques. During the 2008 presidential election, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, revealed that Chinese hackers had infiltrated secure campaign computer systems. Though the information accessed was unclassified, this act served as proof that US adversaries were more than capable of exploiting US networks, and that targets did not necessarily have to be government related.
Still much of, if not all of America’s critical infrastructure operates off of some form of digital network and is therefore vulnerable to exploitation. However, government officials recognize this vulnerability and continue to make strides to mitigate this issue. The Department of Homeland security has dedicated watch and warning centers specifically to Cyber security, and has world-class cyber professionals working to secure our nations digital assets. Resources like the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD), and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Teams are all dedicated to new U.S. cyber-security defense mission. “The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense (DOD) signed a landmark memorandum of agreement in 2010 to protect against threats to critical civilian and military computer systems and networks”(DHS,2013,np). DHS is now, not only responsible for the .gov and .mil domains, but is also providing private sector organizations with assistance and oversight to defend the .mil domain as well. In 2012, DHS monitoring equipment resulted in more than 5,000 alerts from critical infrastructure attack attempts. To mitigate the risk involving cybercrime, DHS and the Secret Services maintain the Electronic Crimes Task Forces. This division of the agency focuses singularly on the identifying and locating of cybercrimes, connected to bank fraud, data breaches and other like cyber related crimes. They were responsible for the capture of cyber criminals responsible for nearly $600 million dollars in damages to a number of financial and retail institutions. DHS’s cyber mission forces were also responsible for the prevention of nearly $1.5 billion dollars in losses through cybercrime investigations. The collaboration and cooperation of all levels of government and private entity organizations is vital to America’s defense against cyber exploitation. Though cyber-attacks are not physical attacks on the homeland, they are often more dangerous. If cyber-weapons are not controlled, they could become catalysts to actual kinetic war.

Bibliography

Clarke, Richard A. Cyber War, New York, NY; Harper Collins, 2010.

DHS, "Homeland Security." Cybersecurity Results. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013. . (accessed October 24, 2013)

"Terrorism Research." Early History of Terrorism. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013. . (accessed October 26, 2013)