Cyber Espionage: A Serious and Growing Threat
By John Riley
Chinese hackers penetrated White House e-mail archives and were able to sneak onto the network several times according to The Register, a British publication in 2008.
North Korean hackers managed to penetrate a website and obtain a secret U.S.-South Korean plan to defend the Korean peninsula in case of war according to a recent Defense News report.
An investigation by The Wall Street Journal revealed an unnamed intruder was able to penetrate the Pentagon computers and steal terabytes of information about the design and electronic systems for the new $300 billion state-of-the-art Joint Strike Fighter project.
Every day, the Department of Defense detects 3 million unauthorized computer probes of its networks while the Department of State fends off 2 million probes according to a Right Side News report November 29, 2009.
Several countries have state-of-the-art cyber espionage capabilities
These incidents are typical of the daily threats that military, government contractors, and industry organizations are facing. Global Cyber CEO, Jody Westby, said in USA Today in January that China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Israel, France, the United States and the United Kingdom are recognized as possessing state-of-the-art cyber espionage expertise which they use for economic and military intelligence gathering. Alan Paller, director of research for the Sans Institute said on Fox News, January 22, 2010, that over 100 countries have cyber espionage capabilities.
“It’s espionage on a massive scale” says Paul B. Kurtz, a former high-ranking national security official. In 2008, over 12,900 cyber security attacks had been reported to the Homeland Security Dept. which was triple the number from two years earlier. Air Force Lt. General, Robert Elder points out “ while much of the focus is on data loss or data gain, the biggest concern should be that an adversary manipulates data and we do not even recognize it.”
U. S. power plants are vulnerable
To make the point, a PC World story in early 2009 talked about hackers believed to be from China or Russia, had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and were able to install “software tools” that would disrupt the grid system. The degree to which the grid had been accessed was not revealed, but investigators said the attack was ‘pervasive’ to the extent that control of U.S. power plants could be taken over by the hackers.
Several studies have been made of U.S. cyber security policies and programs to improve security, each with a set of recommendations. One of the most recent was the Commission on Cyber Security under the leadership of Melissa Hathaway, which made its recommendations to the White House and congress in February, 2009, but little or no implementation has taken place. The most important proposal calls for the government to work more closely with the private sector, but also pointed out the need for emphasis on key infrastructure and coordination of preventive and responsive activities.
The U. S. has no formal policy dealing with foreign threats
Another reason for adopting Hathaway’s study recommendation for closer government-private sector coordination is the fact most of the critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector. Without that coordination, it is very difficult to determine the targets and the nature of the threats.
According to a Wall Street Journal online report, “the U.S. government and private industry seem to be in a reactive role, detecting intrusions and information losses only after the fact, with no cross-government or industry coordinated response. Efforts to coordinate standards and policies across the private sector and in government, therefore appear stalled.” A Computer World story adds, “The U.S. has no formal policy for dealing with foreign government-led threats against U.S interest in cyberspace.
While there are obvious areas of concern about the state of U.S. cyber security, it is entirely possible some of the recommendations of various organizations have not been ignored. Cyber security techniques are not something the government would want to share in any detail. Time will tell if the government may have quietly adopted some or many of the recommendations and advanced our cyber security more than is generally recognized.
The next article, Cyber Espionage- (2 0f 5) Vulnerabilities are Many, will appear March 30..
