Critical Information Warefare And Cyberwar

Definition of warfare and cyberwar- Before we can give consideration to information warfare and cyberwar, its imperative to understand exactly what warfaree and cyberwar is. A cyberwar also known as cyber warfare refers to the use of the world wide web and computers to conduct warfare in cyberspace. Although relatively minimal and mild thus far, cyber-warfare has the potential to cause critical loses in system data and information, resulting in power cuts, military activity and other service interferences, which means such warfare could pose risk of world wide catastrophes.

Downside to info revolution- With the current information revolution, the problem of netwar and cyberwar has grown to immense proportions of impotence, dominating numerous political discussions worldwide. Numerous activist-, extremist- and terrorist groups have successfully employed the world wide web and cellular technology in the forms of calls, sms's and mms's to spread the word on their various causes and beliefs in turn recruit new members, coordinate activities and disseminate propaganda. These network-style organizations give non-state individuals the opportunity to challenge Government authority in a way rather unprecedented and unpredictable.

Attack types- Several types cyber attack can be used in warfaree and cyberwar. These attacks include but are definitely not limited to cyber espionage, data gathering ,denial of service attacks, equipment and activity disruptions, critical infrastructure attacks and compromised counterfeit hardware.

Strategising- Countries from all over the world have been brainstorming strategies to use the world wide web as an information atomic bomb with the aim of targeting stock exchanges as well as government systems, utilities and activities. An activity extremely reminiscent since cession of the Cold War, is the testing of weak links in networks to gain access to intelligent information. The use of weak spot in systems and networks are thus clearly not a new warfaree strategy.

Leaders in warfare- China is regarded as the forerunning in warfaree and cyberwar, with accusations of spying and cyber attacks on prominent countries such as India, Germany and the United States of America. These attacks have however been rubbished and criticized by the China Intelligence Agency, Government and the country's citizens, with arguments that a country's Government cannot be blamed for compromised computers under the controlled of criminal minds in the form of hackers.

Why the focus on China?- Many people may ask why the focus in terms of warfaree and cyberwar is so much on China, well the reason is simply- because of the country's immense volume of resources. American Cyber War officials have been developing and testing several "wargames" or attack simulations to determine the extent and exact areas of vulnerability in the United States of America, should a serious attack be launched on the country's Internet resources. To date, a couple of dozen Nations acknowledge and boast with highly developed Cyber War capability and capacity, who are also openly hostile towards the United States of America. These include but are not limited to China, North Korea and Iran. The Wargames are developed with Chinese mentality and imagination in mind. Should the wargame be coupled with a Chinese computer boffin on the development team who knows just enough about the web infrastructure, we all would be in for a big surprise or rather scare. What's even more worrying is the fact that the majority of the most professional attackers on the world wide web, don't have buckets full of money or an army of soldiers, all that's required is just the right amount of information. This type of information is however very expensive to obtain and comprises mainly of previously undetected flaws in software, specifically software controlling routers and other fundamental elements of the world wide web.

Establishment of Separate Internet- Attack simulations have identified an enormous amount of flaws and vulnerabilities in the United States of America, which are practical impossible to rectify or re-enforce in turn leaving the country totally unprotected. This has lead to the Department of Defence's establishment of Separate Internet (SIPRI). At first sight SIPRI looks exactly like the Internet, but you can't access the system from the regular Internet. Over and above this, SIPRI transfer most of its data encrypted, which means that even if you successfully tap into the data, you'll still be required to decrypt it. Even with the use SIPRI, much of the military activities are conducted over the regular Internet, we have all come to know and love. Just shows you how highly dependant commercial firms and government agencies, are normal Internet connectivity.

What other flaws have attack simulations pin-pointed thus far?- Attack simulations have shown that even if SIPRI remains up and running that military operations could still be crippled. This can be attributed to military's need and requirements which are solely dependant upon normal internet connectivity. These needs include supplies, equipment maintenance and administration. Simulations have also reveal high risk enemy vulnerabilities. Its safe to assume-no one is safe! The million Dollar question is- how do we handle this sticky situation? The answer comes in the form of scenarios, contingency plans and tons more simulations, to get a holistic view of every countries offensive and defensive Cyber War capabilities and capacities. Just as the world wide web develops and evolves, so should Cyber War plans and strategies.

Influence on satellites- Communications satellites form an essential part of military operation and use, this includes GPS, satellite phones and moving information. The greatest disadvantage is the Internet fibre optics cabling located underground. The weakness spot does however not lie with the cabling, but rather the software used to operate the Internet. The battlefield comprises of hundreds of thousands of software bits and bytes ranging from browsers to router switches as well as millions of hardware items for example servers and routers.

Israeli-Palestinian cyber war - Even though the majority of ethereal cyberwar types are unrelated to the military, the impact and implications for not only cyber wars but also for national sovereignty, international law and relations, are huge. For example Israeli-Palestinian cyberwar which started in September 2000. Attacks were launched on the websites of Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian State Authority's by Israeli hackers. A virtual-Jihad had to be called-in by Palestinians, who retaliated by attacks on official Israeli websites. Thousands of sites were attacked criss-cross, resulting in an immensely strained Internet infrastructure. Development and maintenance of world wide support networks are essential in the battle to combat and eliminate cyberwar. Governmental and State computer hacking is extremely difficult to prevent and often justifiably. This is most probably the reason why Palestinians have waged cyberwar with great success when compared to real life warfare.

The world wide network infrastructures are always on threats,I hope some day we just see cyberpeace against cyberwar.

Ali Bitazar is Computer Network high ranked engineer