Saturday 11 June 2011

Era of Digital Warfare comes through Cyber-Attack


Quite rapidly, parts of our public and private  lives have chunked into their own virtual   existence on the internet. A Cyber-Attack is an attempt to undermine or compromise the   function of a computer-based system, or attempt to track the online movements of   individuals without their permission. Attacks of this type may be undetectable to the end   user or network administrator.

As in our real lives we can be harmed by attacks, as well as in our virtual world also and these virtual attacks have real world consequences. Cyber-Attacks have become an international problem affecting both civilian and military areas Cyber terrorists are more sophisticated in nature.


 


Communication technologies–most notably social networks like Orkut, Facebook and Twitter–factored heavily in mobilizing the disillusioned populace to action. Both Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, but obviously there are alternative ways to get the message out.

So questions comes that Cyber-Attacks have been used,  When? Why? By whom?
We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet.

The ultimate doomsday scenario—thinks Live Free or Die Hard—could involve a simultaneous attack on economic e-infrastructure and e-communications: imagine al -Qaeda disabling banks, destroying financial data, disrupting networks, and driving the American economy back to the nineteenth century.  

There are certainly genuine security concerns associated with the Internet. But before accepting the demands of government agencies for new and increased powers to fight threats in cyberspace and prepare for Cyber-Warfare, we should look more closely at well-defined dangers and ask just where existing technological means and legal norms fall short. Because the technologies are changing so quickly, we cannot expect definitive answers.

One kind of Cyber-Security problem grows out of resource scarcity. This limitation creates an opportunity for attackers. Since no one, not even the U.S. government, has infinite computer resources, any network is potentially at risk. In that case attackers use the most basic kind of “denial-of-service” (DoS) attack, which aims to deny or delay the delivery of online services to legitimate users.

Hundreds of personal mail accounts, bank accounts etc. were phished for passwords. Emails that appeared to have been sent by friends carried attachments that brought the user to a phony login page.

But what about genuine Cyber-Warfare? The year was 2007 and the hacking victim was the U.S. Department of Defense. The cyber-attacks on Estonia in April-May 2007 (triggered by squabbling between Tallinn and Moscow over the relocation of a Soviet-era monument) and the Cyber-dimension of the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia have reignited older debates about how Cyber-Attacks could be used by and against governments.


Now it’s 2011 and it’s Google that got hacked. This Google accounts belonged to senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in other Asian countries–mostly South Korea–as well as military personnel and journalists. According to Google, the phishing attempts originated in Jinan, China.


So, the age of Cyber-Warfare has arrived.  It's a Digital Revolution. At any time, the message can be announced.

5 comments:

  1. There are various types of cyber attack,
    Please give some idea on those attacks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's really good....
    Topic is very much interesting.
    continue your postings,

    ReplyDelete
  3. create a post on google account hacking by chaina

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very enlightening post indeed .... Cyber terrorism can indeed cripple a nation's economy and in military warfare can neutralize the machines, equipments and even missiles or if the weapons fall into wrong hands, rest assured we can have doomsday here on earth.
    Do mention the Chinese intervention into the Indian Government's confidential documents and records a few months back. It just will show how vulnerable and militarily as well as economically insecure we are compared to our giant neighbour.

    ReplyDelete