WMDs of a different kind

Just when the world is understanding a concept, we can trust the US Government to come up with some brilliant idea that turns the concept on it's head. 

Remember Stuxnet? We were struggling with the viruses in the wild, calling them trojans and malware and all sorts of names and then... boom! Stuxnet rises, cripples Iran's nuclear abs and creates a new lexicon entry - APT. 

Cut to present day disclosures - Cyberwar and cyberterror experts are yet to digest the contents of TAO or PRISM. In fact the most respected people in the war business have (on record) said they do not understand the term "cyberwar". 

Inspite of such disclosures, governments are buying cutting edge tools for doing stuff on their perimeter and outside. Armies of developers are creating cyber-weapons (malware) and letting their inner devils run wild.

No one even thought about creating chaos to bring down a government, except the brilliantly evil brains in the American establishment! 

Read U.S. secretly built 'Cuban Twitter' to stir unrest

No one thought of converting the idea of "Arab spring" into a cyber-weapon! 
Except for the brilliantly evil brains in the American establishment :)

And the concept of cyberweaponry is now turned over it's head. A true blue WMD that can be used to spread disinformation, create chaotic crowds, influence thought or engineer civil strife. And there is the easy way to engineer the downfall of a government.  

The US government used the facade of USAID to set up a twitter-like portal (Zun Zuneo) focused on building a community in Cuba and have used it for a number of self-serving activities. The underlying objective is to influence thought and bring about change by having a democratic government. 

So what does this now do for the world? Increase the level of distrust for all business or things of US origin. 

I mean if Facebook starts a misinformation campaign after setting up about a 1000 or more fake accounts where are we headed. 

How about scaring a whole country (or community) and starting mass migration and polarization on the lines of caste / color / religion / language. 

Or mobilizing flash crowds in every city to chant anti-national slogans creating a law and order situation.

In the last few days we have read disclosures which reported that Google and Microsoft have accessed emails without authorization. The Snowden disclosures are still continuing and have not helped in managing the reputations of any of these global corporations. 

There is distrust all around! And incidents like this from USAID will not help. 

However, we have a new WMD and it has to be developed in stealth mode. 

Its the war syndrome....

The generals have new weapons. The generals need not be uniformed with rows of medals on their chests . Their armies need not be working out everyday to be in good health etc.... They may never step out into the open to wage war because they attack through computers and networks using invisible bits and bytes to inflict more damage than "Little Boy" and it's descendants.

Well MI-5 has warned UK based corporations to be aware of Chinese espionage. The statement makes a vague reference to 'other states' but that is unqualified.
(Check the story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7123970.stm)

Then we have the White House, yesterday, asking for a few millions to fortify cybersecurity and $ 115 m is not small change.

To add to the terror scenario we have a teenager who was controlling the largest botnet from idyllic New Zealand. And then the personal data of a person no less than the Information Commissioner is farmed off the net at a cost of 35 p in less than an hour !
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/04/ndata204.xml

So is the Internet going to become the nemesis of mankind ? Is this where they will launch wars of a personal nature or against a state ? And the intensity of the weapons will overshadow the infamous invisible WMDs.

The enemy may well be sitting at a console next to you in the neighborhood cybercafe.

Everyday we have a new doomsday scenario tale and a small world becomes smaller.

Dinesh O Bareja

Weapons of Mass Destruction ? The next battleground

No one found the WMDs ! The reason is simple ... the search was in all the wrong places.

They do exist but not in the tangible world as we know them. The WMDs we have grown up with are the nuclear devices, the chemical weapons, the large armies, the terrorists. These are passe.

WMDs today are unseen, they are invisible bits and bytes that can travel over fiber optic across continents before you can blink. These bits and bytes, shaped by some 'beautiful' criminal mind into a virus, a trojan, a DOS to wreak havoc and bring terror to the doorstep of the common man.

Critical infrastructure like airports, dams, utilities, power and nuclear facilities, defence facilities are on alert against the risk of attack but with barriers and para-military forces the threat is mitigated. What about the WMD attack - the attack which comes stealthily via the internet in the form of trojans, viruses, rootkits, web-bots etc. An attack which can paralyze the airport or can shutdown the nuclear facility.

Webface defacements, hacking, data theft and such IT crime is commonplace today and we have new reports daily - globally. So it is easy for a terrorist to construct the WMD and let it loose for destruction.

So how do we search and control those evil designs. The answers may be in a reorientation of education at all levels. By the inclusion of ethics in system design and development, in the use of technology. Or will it be necessary for system development to be licenced and controlled by governments as is the case with the manufacture of nuclear and conventional weapons.

Recent events in Estonia have shown what the WMD can do, and we do not know whether the hills of Kandhar have classes in computer technology after the wannabe terrorist has finished target practice and the indoctrination lecture for the day.

Thoughts to ramble on, and yes it is a terrifying thought but what if it was another 'Live Free Die Hard' scenario.

Rambing Securely

Yes I would like to make this a space to ramble on and on about InfoSec. Passionate I am about this from the day I realized that this is something which is where I want to be.

It was sometime in 2000 or earlier that I was exposed to the thought of security in technology. And I was excited about the subject and got to reading whatever I could get my hands on. Learnt what continuity meant, and that there existed a CIA triad which was the basis of all secure thought. And that the Deming cycle meant a lot to make life secure.

One has come a long way and I have gathered a lot of moss ...... and the excitement continues ! The passion is as strong as ever, and the quest for knowledge stronger.

With all the churn in the mind, I keep rambling, so I decided to blog all these thoughts. And maybe start some discussions which may (hopefully) lead to better something someplace.