Are We In A Cyber Cold War? -

Are We In A Cyber Cold War?
November 30, 2007 | by Christopher Nickson

McAfee asserts that government Internet attacks threaten security.

According to Internet security company McAfee in its Virtual Criminality Report, groups either allied to or from governments in up to 120 countries could be engaged in cyber spying or cyber attacks, creating as massive threat to Internet security.

One of the worst offenders is believed to be China. So far this year it’s believed to have been behind attacks on the US, India, New Zealand and Australia.

The McAfee report included input from NATO, the FBI, and the Serious Organized Crime Agency.

Earlier this year Estonia was hit by a massive distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack that coincided with a dispute between the country and Russia over a war memorial, but Russia denied any culpability for the attacks.

“Attacks have progressed from initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage,” McAfee stated.

The report also dealt extensively with criminal activities on the Internet, which is now a billion dollar industry. One highlight was the use of “vishing,” which is hacking into VoIP technology.

Post Your Comment...Comments

Brad Parsons on Dec 4th, 2007 at 8:47 AM:

There is another great piece on this in the October issue of Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine. Both point out the risk and how we need to prepare for sucha an event. I found the link above to recommended actions including creating a department of cyber defense by the author of the other article. Reading all these pieces makes me concerned that we need to move faster rather than slower. A concept our Government has not grasp yet!

Brad Parsons on Dec 4th, 2007 at 8:47 AM:

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