The 80s to Modern Day Cyber Warfare

The mere mention of cyber warfare reminds me of the glory movie days of the 1980’s, where each year a dozen or so blockbuster films came out that will forever remain classics.

The truth is, reality has taken over the futuristic views of Hollywood’s best film producers of the 1980’s.OK, E.T has maybe not visited us yet, well… in any formal capacity anyway and RoboCop may not be policing our streets but when you look at films like Short Circuit and War Games, technology has well surpassed that of the creative movie geniuses from the 80s.

Johnny 5 may not be alive but drones and aeroplanes can to a certain degree think for themselves while the unthinkable scenario from 80s hit classic ‘War Games’ is now a reality due to the development of the internet. It’s safe to say in the 1980s the idea of war games or cyber warfare being a reality where unimaginable but hey, here we are!

According to news reports around the world it’s very real and very much alive. It is safe to say that while you are reading this, somewhere in the world somebody will be actively participating in cyber warfare.

There are many different types of attacks, for instance the most popular types of cyber-attacks consist around sabotage, espionage, national security breaches, denial-of-service attacks and even electrical power grid attacks but thankfully I don’t think the latter has ever been done successfully.

China! It’s no secret China have been actively participating in cyber warfare, they may deny it or simply accuse other nations of attacking them but China’s roll in modern day cyber warfare is well documented.

They have been accused on numerous occasions by the US government of successfully gaining access to delicate files concerning national security.

Here is a quick overview of the most documented China cyber-attacks:

• Titan Rain
• State Department’s East Asia Bureau
• Offices of Rep. Frank Wolf
• Commerce Department
• Naval War College
• Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and the 2003 blackout?
• McCain and Obama presidential campaigns
• Office of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL
• Ghostnet
• Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program

The most documented attacks are featured in the Foreign Policy website which can be accessed here:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/01/22/the-top-10-chinese-cyber-attacks-that-we-know-of/

China, Israel, America, North Korea, The UK and other nations may be actively participating or counter measuring against other countries however, cyber warfare is not a country specific problem.

It’s apparently rife in the corporate world with industrial espionage, it’s also used by terrorist groups the world over and can be seen even closer to home with civil attacks on personal websites, groups computers and even social media profiles.

For the big countries in the world that are desperate to hack into the infrastructures of other countries, let’s leave them to it. My philosophy is cyber war is better than shooting guns and dropping bombs but for the small to medium sized businesses out there we recommend investing wisely in order to protect infrastructure.

For the SEM’s and webmasters of the world here are a few tips that will help prevent cyber-attacks, surprisingly you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, just need to have a bit of common sense and a steer in the right direction.

• Establish strong passwords
• Put up a strong firewall
• Install antivirus protection
• Update your programs regularly
• Secure your laptops
• Secure your mobile phones
• Backup regularly
• Monitor diligently
• Be careful with email, IM, and surfing the web
• Educate your employees

You can find more in-depth details over at Business Insider!

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-protect-your-business-from-cyber-attacks-2011-8?op=1&IR=T

Well I hope you enjoyed the journey from War Games to modern day cyber warfare. There is only one thing left for me to do now, go and watch the War Games Movie!