[ISN] Cyber Attacks Can Spark Real Wars

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577219543897943980.html

By RICHARD A. CLARKE
The Wall Street Journal
FEBRUARY 16, 2012

For most of this year, Arab-Israeli tensions have been spilling off the 
streets and airwaves and onto the region's fiber optic cables. Citizen 
hackers on both sides have engaged in tit-for-tat raids on Israeli, 
Saudi and other regional computer networks. Stock exchanges, airlines, 
government offices and even hospitals have had their websites defaced or 
shut down. Credit-card numbers and personal emails have been stolen and 
posted on the Internet. One Israeli official has labeled the escalating 
cyber hostility "terrorism" and called for it to be dealt with as such.

It has not been terrorism. No one has died and, so far, nothing has 
blown up as a result. Indeed, most of the activity has involved the use 
of relatively commonplace hacker tools and techniques. This ongoing 
cyber "hacktivism" has, however, demonstrated three things that should 
cause nations to act.

First, the ease with which the hacktivists have been able to steal data 
and to shut down Web pages suggests that companies (and perhaps 
governments) in the region have not yet taken cyber security seriously. 
Governments in other regions (Asia, Europe, North America) have been 
educating, assisting and regulating companies to improve their cyber 
security. There has been a notable lack of such government activity in 
the Middle East, and that inactivity has opened the way for citizen 
hackers to cause the mischief we see today.

If the hackers turn their attention to disruption and destruction, as 
some have threatened, they are likely to find the controls for electric 
power grids, oil pipelines and precious water systems inadequately 
secured. If a hacker causes real physical damage to critical systems in 
that region, it could quickly involve governments retaliating against 
each other with both cyber and conventional weapons. Middle Eastern 
governments need to get their citizen hackers under control and better 
protect their own critical networks, or they will eventually be dragged 
into unwanted conflict.

[...]


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