System of cyber warfare

Introduction:

Could hackers get into the main computer systems that run fundamental elements of the most world’s infrastructure information’s? Today it’s not only possible, but all of that has actually happened before, and plus a lot more we don’t even know about. Many believe that cyber war experts could be used to launch a major attack on the nation’s infrastructure. According to the researchers, other noticeable trends will include greater interest and awareness in continuing cyber war activities going on in the international area, and greater than before use of shade based defenses to help organizations share intelligence and stay ahead of attacks. The country of China’s hacking and cyber combat capabilities includes that China is likely using its growing computer system operation capability to maintain intelligence gathering against the United States government and industry by conducting a extensive period, complicated computer system operation.[1] I think there are a lot of evidence that shows Chinese government is using hacking techniques to embezzle United States government and diligence secrets. Also, many of the attacks have come from Russia. Numerous of the cyber attacks are being hosted by Russian state computer main servers. I’m going to argue that the water works, electrical power, internet, cyberspace, defense, telecommunications, and transportation is highly vulnerable to cyber attack.

“There are possible threats to computing facility and the information contained that it is in are to determine the security measurements that should be investigated plus both external and internal threats.”[2] Cyber threats can be grouped into deliberate threats, accidental threats, and natural disasters such as water and fire. “It is because of natural disasters have typically been very critical and likewise expensive, there are computing main center’s security budget is geared to prevent and recover from a huge devastating natural disasters.”[3] One of the reason why water resource will be in great damage is because due to fire sprinklers. Thousands of firefighters can be more damaging than the fire itself. Since the main computer circuits and magnetic storage media are not even near the fire so it may be damaged too. Not only that but the other sources of water damage may come from many tropical storms such as floods. It will cause danger activities of the firefighter on higher floors, leakage in the main computer’s water cooling system, sewers backing, broken pipes, and many more.

“But on the other hand, there are other natural calamities that may occur to computing centers include sandblasting near air conditioning intakes, gas or chemicals, lightning, war, aircraft crashes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and explosions.”[4] The sprinkler systems are often the second line of defense. If a sprinkler system is to be used, there should be at least a delay between the alarm and the water so that the equipment can be powered down and the fire can be put out by hand held equipment.

Energy Electrical Power and Grids:

Second reason why there is a greater chance on cyber attack is the electrical power. There are various sectors of critical infrastructure sectors have unique types of location, structure, and facilities. Consequently, all the information that is potentially responsive will vary by sites, by sector and among similar sites in various locations. Energy sectors such as electrical power systems are very complex networks composed of the transmission, generation, control, and support networks. “In which case, they will work together to supply electricity to end users. But overall, the national electrical power grid is an enormously organized and active system. There is numerous major electrical power generation sources that are petroleum, gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, and coal.”[5] They are the control networks that are information control points that regular the overall system operations. Also, they support the networks that provide resources and information that the other networks need to operate.

I think that there are possible vulnerabilities of the energy sector that may vary drastically with regard to possible contact within and outside its systems. Vulnerabilities exist in terms of both objective and cyber attacks. In general, the targets of potential highest value are those located in populated country or urban areas where attacks will generate the maximum prospective impact “In addition, the energy sector facilities that contain hazardous materials, of which there are many, could also prove vulnerable target.”[6] Many of these targets meeting with great criteria should be considered highly vulnerable.

The Internet:

Information system like the Internet are very defenseless to cyber attack, as evidenced by the quickly rising number of system intrusions. Well the focus here is on the criminal violators, including terrorists who seek to attack and destroy elements of society. A different, and potentially more severe, threat is where the attacker is a sovereign state. “That class of attack, constituting what is called information warfare, is beyond the scope of the discussion here and of the Draft International Convention.”[7] The Internet provides the basis for the global information infrastructure and it gradually more provides connectivity for a wide range of other infrastructures. The Internet is governed through the voluntary actions of the technical people who expand and extend its functionality. “Many internet are basically running on the basis of network protocols, agreements on how information should appear in a message, how that information is to interpreted and the format of that message.”[8]

“There are strong arguments for imposing liability on Internet Service Providers for violations of cyber security and they can track the four core intuitions outlined in the previous section.”[9] Some people say that individuals who originate malicious computer code are typically far beyond the reach of conventional law. Well for one thing, they are very hard to identify. So saboteurs use the Internet’s topology to conceal their tracks by routing messages through a convoluted path that is difficult for authorities to uncover. Moreover, by the time a computer virus or a worm is detected, the trail often is cold or loss.

“Even if the attackers were caught, the individuals who create malicious computer code rarely have to sufficient assets to pay for the losses they impose.”[10] Moreover, careless firms and users would typically not be that hard to track down. I think the only sense in which these bad attackers are beyond the reach of law is the practical concern about the costs of identifying and suing them as compared to the fraction of the damages for which they might be held legally responsible.

Cyber Space:

One thing is that the rise of cyberspace has greatly facilitated all kinds of activity including governmental interaction, commercial, and social. There is no doubt that cyberspace today constitutes expensive real estate indeed. They have also running scared control of many real world processes through cyberspace. Because of this increased value, the security of cyberspace has grown in importance. “The rise of terrorism as one of the type of symmetric and distributed ware, has threaten not only the gains derived from cyberspace but the activities that now come to depend on communication through cyberspace infrastructure.”[11]

There are obvious problems in making detailed recommendations about the United States government role in critical infrastructure protection in general, and in dealing with the powerful threats posed by cyber warfare and cyber terrorism in particular. Also it is very clear that the U.S. has made substantial progress in defining policies and strategies for dealing with the new threats to its critical infrastructure. At the same time, there is a disturbing gap between the military focus on asymmetric ware fare and civil focus on cyber crime and cyber terrorism. Well for me, the only way for a success is ultimately be for the U.S. government to focus on only those threats that truly being threaten the nation.[12] Cyber war is a case in point, as is high level cyber terrorism. So they are efforts to create effective international cooperation in limiting all forms of cyber attacks.

United States Defense Infrastructure:

Another reason why is the disconnecting between cyber defense and cyber offense. There is also a clear disconnect between the efforts in the United States to plan offensive cyber warfare and efforts at cyber defense. “Many defenders also assert that technology in favors the attackers, prevents attribution, and makes counteroffensive difficult or impossible.”[13] I believe that the United States military and defense officials involved in information warfare and planning and executing cyber war have divided views. I feel that those people who directly involved in cyber offense generally seem to feel that carrying out a successful major cyber attack is far more difficult than those outside the national security arena recognize. “This disconnect between defense and offense illustrates a basic problem underlying both any unclassified analysis of cyber threats and their impact on homeland defense.”[14]

In the book Mapping the Risk: Assessing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information, Anthony quoted:

“For potential attackers, such as terrorist groups, seeking to cause casualties or economic disruption, the United States is a target-rich-environment. Many critical sites are relatively vulnerable to various types of attacks involving conventional explosives, weapons of mass destruction, or unconventional means of attack, such as aircraft crashes.”[15]

To improve the protection of the most critical facilities and location within the U.S. Homeland, the federal government is pursuing a comprehensive national approach to their physical and cyber protection in partnership with state and local governments and the private sector.

Telecommunication:

In Hong Kong, computer crimes are as a rule, governed under the Telecommunications Ordinance. Under Hong Kong law, offenses against e-mail, damage and destruction, computer fraud, and theft of electronic data are all criminal offenses.[16] Abraham argue that in the People’s Republic of China, all computer related crimes are covered by Articles 258-287 of the Criminal Code.[17] He also mention that if they illegally interfering in the operation of a computer system, they will be punish by a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

“The legislatures of Western and Central European countries have been active in promulgating laws prohibiting unauthorized access, computer sabotage, computer espionage data manipulation, and computer fraud.”[18] This shows that one area in which the national laws of European countries are significantly in agreement is that of computer sabotage, which encompasses purposeful damage to the integrity of computers, computer afforded to computer stored data among the criminal laws of European states.

Throughout this paper we have seen or believed that the United States is vulnerable to various types of information cyber warfare attacks. Many threats that are range from nuisance attacks by hackers to those potentially putting national security at risk. Critical command and control and intelligence systems are designed to be robust and secure under attack. We see that our cyber security is a leading national problem for which the market may fail to produce a solution. Much has been said about the threat posed by worldwide cyber crime, but little has been down to protect against it. All they need to do is to meet challenge immediate and compelling necessity.

Bibliography

• Anderson, H. Robert. Feldman, M Phillip. Gerwehr, SCott. Houghton, Brian. Mesic, Richard. John, D. Pinder. Jeff, Rothenberg. Chiesa, James. Securing the U.S. Defense Information Infrastructure: A Proposed Approach. National Defense Research Institue. Washington D.C. 1999.
• Baker, C. John. Lachman, E. Beth. Frelinger, R. David. O’Connell, M. Kevin. Hou, C. Alexander. Tseng, S. Michael. Orletsky, David. Yost, Charles. Mapping the Risks: Assissing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information. RAND Corporation. 2004.
• Cordesman, H. Anthony. Cordesman, G. Justin. Cyber-Threats, Information Warfare, and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Defending the U.S. Homeland. Praeger. Connecticut. 2002.
• Grady, F. Mark. Parisi, Francesco. The Law and Economics of Cyber Security. Cambridge University Press. New York. 2006.
• McMillian, Robert. IDG News Service. PCWorld. October 27, 2009. March 15, 2010. http://www.pcworld.com/article/174210/report_says_china_ready_for_cyberwar_espionage.html.
• Sofaer, D. Abraham. Goodman, E. Seymour. The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism. Hoover Institution Press Publication. California. 2001.
• Walker, J. Bruce. Blake, F. Ian. Computer Security and Protection Structures. Dowden Hutchinson & Ross, Inc. Pennsylvania. 1977.

1. McMillian, Robert. IDG News Service. PCWorld. October 27, 2009. March 15, 2010. http://www.pcworld.com/article/174210/report_says_china_ready_for_cyberwar_espionage.html.
2. Walker, J. Bruce. Blake, F. Ian. Computer Security and Protection Structures. Dowden Hutchinson & Ross, Inc. Pennsylvania. 1977.p.1.
3. Walker. Ibid., p. 1.
4. Walker. Ibid., p. 2.
5. Baker, C. John. Lachman, E. Beth. Frelinger, R. David. O’Connell, M. Kevin. Hou, C. Alexander. Tseng, S. Michael. Orletsky, David. Yost, Charles. Mapping the Risks: Assissing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information. RAND Corporation. 2004., p.184.
6. Baker, Ibid., p. 185 .
7. Sofaer, D. Abraham. Goodman, E. Seymour. The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism. Hoover Institution Press Publication. California. 2001., p.126.
8. Sofaer. Ibid., p. 127
9. Grady, F. Mark. Parisi, Francesco. The Law and Economics of Cyber Security. Cambridge University Press. New York. 2006. p.232.
10. Grady. Ibid., p.234.
11. Grady. Ibid., p.259.
12. Cordesman, H. Anthony. Cordesman, G. Justin. Cyber-Threats, Information Warfare, and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Defending the U.S. Homeland. Praeger. Connecticut. 2002. p.179.
13. Cordesman. Ibid., p.3.
14. Cordesman. Ibid., p.3.
15. Cordesman. Ibid., p.180.
16. Sofaer, D. Abraham. Goodman, E. Seymour. The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism. Hoover Institution Press Publication. California. 2001. p.44.
17. Cordesman. Ibid., p.44.
18. Cordesman. Ibid., p.45.