Jesus Encarnacion
Dr. Kerr
EN101-12
19 May 2013
Cyber Warfare
Cyber Warfare is one of the most evolving and also
advancing threats that the world faces. The Internet has brought many benefits
to society, but it has also brought conflicts. Cyber Warfare is one of them;
cyber warfare is using computers and the Internet to attack other computers. As
described by government security expert, Richard A. Clarke, cyber warfare is “Actions
by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the
purposes of causing damage or disruption” (qtd.
in Kaplan). It involves hacking computers of any kind especially governments
and organizations; by hacking them, computers are then controlled by groups who
want to gain system and secret information. The main targets are the military
computer networks, banks, government and media Web sites (McGuigan).
Cyber warfare first began in the 1970s in the form of a virus worm attack (Rosenzweig).
In America Cyber warfare is the United States Cyber Command’s military strategy
of cyber defense and also the use of cyber warfare platform for attack. Cyber
warfare has been used many times; in 1998 the U.S. and NATO hacked into the
Serbian air defense system and bombed them by tricking the Serbian air traffic
controllers (Museum of
Vojvodina joins Battle). The Pentagon
plans to create a formal strategy called rule of engagement that will give
military commanders the authority to respond to an enemy cyber-attack (Michaels).
The rule of engagement, as explained by a Pentagon spokesman, Damien Pickart,
will “provide a defined framework for hoe best to respond to the plethora of
cyber-threats we face”(qtd.
in Michaels). Cyber-attacks are a legitimate weapon of war because of the
threat to commerce, military and infrastructure.
Commerce is really important to the economy of the United
States. China is one of the countries that steal trade secrets that hurt the
American economy. Apple is an American corporation that designs computer and
software products. In China, Apple has four official stores. In Kunming a city
in China, Apple has thirteen authorized resellers, meaning others companies
that can sell their products, but Apple does not have official stores in Kunming.
Apple found several fake apple stores with White logo and also wooden tables,
just a like an original Apple store It was found after an American posted her
experience on her blog (Chang).
As of 2011, China was found for the seventh year by the U.S Trade
Representative’s office one of the countries with one of the worst records for
preventing copyright theft. According to the U.S International Trade
Commission, the piracy that China has over U.S pirate software cost the U.S
businesses an estimated $48 billion and almost 2.1 million jobs in 2009. China
has been criticized by the U.S Trade Representative’s Office for failing to stop
the growing theft of American trade secrets (Lee).
U.S businesses have been attacked and trade secrets have
been stolen from U.S companies. The hacking of China over U.S companies has
caused billions of dollars and has become an issue of U.S national security.
Like the director of the National Bureau of Asian Research, Abe Denmark said,
“Hacking has become a significant score spot in the U.S. – China relationship”(qtd. in
Bodeen). China is using cyber attacks to collect American
intelligence and use it against U.S diplomatic and defense programs, the
computer skills to do this type of cyber attacks are the same needed for a
cyber-warfare. Even though China’s
Ministry called the Pentagon’s report an attempt to mislead international
public, the Pentagon says the opposite (Bodeen).
The Pentagon has
officially recognized cyberspace as a domain of warfare. The U.S military is
panning on emphasizing their defense against national cyber threats. The
pentagon is also declaring that if any computer is attacked and affects
civilians, it will be treaded as an act of aggression (Bumiller).
The chief officer Richard Bejtlich of a computer security company said, “ This
is all putting the world on notice, particularly the Chinese, that we’re tired
of them breaking into private companies” (qtd.
in Michaels).
The American government created the United States Cyber
Command also known as its abbreviation name; USCYBERCOM, to prevent counter
attacks to military networks (Humanity
in the Midst of War). The USCYBERCOM as described by them, plans
coordinates, synchronized and conducts activities that when directed, conduct
military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, and ensure
freedom the U.S. as well as their allies. They also coordinate DoD operations
to provide support to military missions. Efforts of the USCYBERCOM will support
the Armed Services ability to conduct effective operations and protect the
command and control systems and also the cyberspace infrastructure supporting
system weapons platforms from disruptions, attacks and intrusions (U.S. Army
Cyber Command).
Attacks can take many forms, from viruses to a
DDoS attack. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for the defense
of civilian Networks (Humanity
in the Midst of War). Obama has authorized the use of a source code
called Stuxnet. A computer worm against an Iranian nuclear faculty, it attacks
on the computer systems that runs Iran’s nuclear faculties, according to the
participants in the program, it can expands America’s use of cyber weapons. Bush
administrations started the orders, but Obama accelerated the attacks. The
program became public in 2010 when an error in program escaped the Iran’s plant
and sent it around the Internet. It was unclear how much the Iranians knew
about the program, Obama then decided to cyber attacks should be proceed. The
plant was hit with another version of the computer worm, and another after that
(Sanger).
Weeks after the source code Stuxnet was detected around the world and with the
last series of attacks, it temporarily took 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges, as
David Sanger from the New York Times described, “1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges
Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium (qtd.
in Sanger).
Two companies, Maverick Technologies and Fairfax,
Va.-based Logos Technologies have team up to protect systems responsible for
the American national infrastructure. They will create set of product that will
help the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems, also know as SCDA,
is software and hardware as well that monitors and also controls the electrical
grid, power nuclear plants and sewage treatment faculties. The two companies
would pool their knowledge around industrial controls cyber security and system
integration. Federal officials have said
that American electrical grids are exposed to cyber attacks and space weather (Kurtovic). A
combined assault of physical attacks and cyber attacks on key parts of the electrical
grid’s infrastructure not only would result in businesses losing electricity
but also could result in hundreds of million of U.S homes without electricity (Magnuson).
President and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Gerry
Cauley said, “I am most concerned about the coordinated physical and
cyber-attacks intended to disable elements of the power grid or deny
electricity to specific targets such as government or business centers,
military installations, or other infrastructures”(qtd.
in Magnuson).
Department of Homeland Security’s interagency program
office, Scott Pugh, said at a meeting in April of 2012 that there are maps that
are not visible to the public, as Scott described, “show you a handful of
substations, six or so, where you could take out those six substations and
black out most of the U.Ss east of Mississippi, if you knew which six they
were, and in many cases you could it with a hunting rifle form a couple hundred
yards away” (qtd.
in Magnuson). The director of the office of the reliability at the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Joseph McClelland, said that attacks
against the grid could be equal or even a greater destruction than cyber
attacks. An EMP event or an electromagnetic pulse could shut down larger swaths
of the nation, and depending on the attack a big part of the infrastructure could
be out of service for months or even a year (Magnuson).
The Chinese military have expressed strong objections to
the Pentagon report about Beijing conducting cyber attacks against the United
States. The Pentagon’s report said that China is stepped up their military
modernization program and is also building space and cyberspace capabilities.
Deputy assistant secretary of defense of East Asia, David Helvey told reporters
that China is increasing their military modernization program under the new
leadership. He also said that by
increasing their military modernization it could restrict free military
operations in the Western Pacific (China).
In 2012,
various computer systems, including computers owned by the American government,
were targeted for intrusions; and some appear to be from the Chinese government
and military organizations, while Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Chinese
Army’s Academy of Military Sciences, said that the Chinese government has never
sanctioned hacking activities. He also recounted that China in addition to the
United States are both victims of cyber crimes and should work together to
solve the problem. China opposes to the Pentagon report, as Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua said, “We firmly oppose the Pentagon report and have made
representations to the United States.” Hua also added that China’s necessary
moderate military buildup meets the country’s needs and is necessary for the
security and the country’s independence (China).
The future of cyber warfare will continue to scale up the
hacking and cyber attacks against governments. Security experts haven spoken
about cyber warfare and have warmed businesses and government to prepare for
the worst. As described by CEO and founder of Kaspersky, Eugene Kaspersky,
“It’s not the question of if a major cyber warfare attacks will happen, it’s an
issue of when and how bad it will be.”(Murphy).
Overall,
Cyber attacks are a legitimate weapon. It is to be considered as the new type
of war generation. Cyber warfare is dangerous to the U.S. government as well as
to other countries. Cyber attacks are hurtful and are a threat to the commerce,
military and infrastructure. China is
one of the countries that steal trade secrets from the United States, affecting
the American economy. The cyber attacks and hacking of China not only has
become an issue of the National Security, but it has also cost billions of
dollars. The rule of engagement, introduced by the Pentagon, should be a good
way to fight against cyber attacks. Furthermore, cyber attacks are threat to
the nation, and actions should be enforced when necessary.
Works cited
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growing irritant in US-China ties." Cyberattacks a growing irritant in
US-China ties. 08 May 2013. 19 May 2013
<http://phys.org/news/2013-05-cyberattacks-us-china-ties.html>.
Bumiller, David E. Sanger And Elisabeth.
"Pentagon To Consider Cyberattacks Acts of War." The New York
Times. 01 June 2011. The New York Times. 19 May 2013
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/us/politics/01cyber.html?_r=1>.
Chang, Gordon G. "Fake Apple Stores in
China. Great News for Apple." Forbes. 24 July 2011. Forbes
Magazine. 19 May 2013
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"China objects to Pentagon
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