TheNews.pk
LONDON: A cyber cold war waged over the world’s computers threatens to become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday.
About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.
Intelligence agencies already routinely test other states networks looking for weaknesses and their techniques are growing more sophisticated every year, it said.
Governments must urgently shore up their defences against industrial espionage and attacks on infrastructure.
Cyber crime is now a global issue, said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs. It has evolved significantly and is no longer just a threat to industry and individuals but increasingly to national security.
The report said China is at the forefront of the cyber war. It said China has been blamed for attacks in the United States, India and Germany. China has repeatedly denied such claims.
The Chinese were first to use cyber-attacks for political and military goals, James Mulvenon, director of the Centre for Intelligence and Research in Washington, was quoted as saying in the report. The report was compiled with input from academics and officials from Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Nato.
Cyber-attacks on private and government web sites in Estonia in April and May this year were just the tip of the iceberg, the report warned.
1 comment:
I saw the former Chief Strategist of Netscape speak on Cyber Warfare at the SECTOR Conference in Toronto, What an eye opening experience. He stated that given the current cyber weapons race, a cyber war is all but a sure thing. He said "with every tick of the clock we are one second closer to an all out cyber war." He also talked about a number of cyber weapons that are both software and hardware. The attack on Syria seem like a small skirmish compared to the massive cyber events in late 2007.
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