Cyber War Is Waged

December 10th, 2007 Posted in News

Organised and random acts of terrorism have been ousted from the number one position as the biggest threat to national security and have been replaced by a cyber cold war.

Cyber espionage has been under development for some years but has recently been stepped up from curiosity to an all out security threat. Government and military computer systems have come under sustained attempts by hackers. 120 countries have the technology to do this but it would seem China is the most advanced.

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the organisation charged with protecting the country’s computer system describes the threat as enormous. Hackers trying to crack Whitehall passwords have been traced back to China but despite this it seems the UK government still have their heads in the sand over this issue. Earlier this year the Home Office cut off special funding for computer crime teams. 

Considering the possibilities of a country succeeding to break into the computer system of another, cutting off funding seems beyond belief. The potential to interfere with the computer systems that run the country’s electricity supply, air traffic controls and financial markets would plunge the country into chaos.

It has already been proved that it is a relatively simple act of control and terrorism. Earlier this year, Estonia accused Russia of imposing unofficial sanctions on their country when their education, banking and government networks were crippled. Cyber war mongering was blamed when the countries computers were bombarded with massive amounts of requests for information to the point of the whole system crashing. Estonian experts claim to have traced this back to Russian authorities including the presidential administration.

The US has picked up the gauntlet and is leading the way in the fight against this international threat. So far this year, they have defended themselves against 37,000 attempted breaches of government and private systems. That’s an average of 5 every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year.

There are limited resources for fighting this new wave of terrorism. Within the American Air Force an entire unit of 40,000 staff members have been set up in preparation of fighting this cyber war. This all costs money and cuts have to be made elsewhere, perhaps explaining why the US government have admitted that fighting this war has reduced the military’s operational capability.

The majority of the world has the know how to commit this technological crime and the majority of the world is taking steps to ensure national security. Isn’t it time Britain caught up?