Pakistan-India Cyberwar

Enoch Root writes "There's been a lot of talk in the past about the possibility of a "cyberwar" complementing a real war. Well, now it's a reality. India and Pakistan engaged in a cyberwar earlier this year." Quote from the story: "Several top Indian and Pakistani computer professionals in America and Europe are 'helping' their respective governments by supplying information on the best way to harm the enemy's computer systems."

Comments

Re:Finally

[JAZ]

Amen brother. this is not warfare, redirection on a web site or email will not influence the outcome of a conflict. real cyberwarfare will involve disruption/faking of communication between command and combat units.
The US touched on this in the gulf when the first targets that were attacked where communication systems and effective blinding Iraq's intel sources. but that doesn't even touch on what a real cyber attack could do. Imagine if, instead of blowing up communication centers, you took over communication centers. you could then direct enemy units to engage each other by telling each them that the hostile target are just over that hill - go kill them! by the time the units realized what had happened they i've taken massive casualities, morale will be decimated, and future intel won't be trusted. next, they call for reenforcements. The captured commo center intercepts that request and forwards it on to higher command, except they change the location that the troops and supplies needs to be sent to and the new location just happens to have an enemy battalion waiting for them.

In a real cyberwar you would defeat your enemy my using his computer system against him. trying to deface a website will not effect combat effectiveness or the outcome of a battle.

anyhow that's my $0.02

Propaganda

[larien]

It seems to currently be relating more to a propaganda war at the moment, with web sites being corrupted and redirected. To be honest, this isn't much different from dropping leaflets over towns & cities with anti-x messages.

If this is the way wars are going to be fought in the future, at least there will be less blood lost.
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...so that's what's gonna happen, eh?

[cswiii]

India, Pakistan both suffer from 'brain drain', as their techies move to the U.S. for better job prospects. Is the reverse now true? Are all of our script k1dd13z moving overseas to wreak havoc with webpages?

Not a bad trade, if you ask me ;)

Where does cyberwar become war?

[Rylen]

Surely with all the technology that is a part of military systems today, war is cyberwar. If the systems onboard an aircraft can be hacked (somehow), and the aircraft is brought down, is that cyberwar? or just plain war?

if cyberwar is merely hacking and 'eavesdropping'.. bringing down your enemies' government's web pages is hardly likely to ensure a victory :-)

In fact, if you hack someone's machine, are you declaring cyberwar on them?

The Battlefield of the Future?

[gleam]

I actually just wrote a mini essay on the state of global political relations in the latter half of the twentieth century, and a large portion of my thesis for the future was on whether Informatics warfare was the battlefield of the future. I'm not the only one to think so, and here's something from the military:

The development and employment of "information warfare," especially when targeted against an adversary leadership's command and control systems or its ability to appear legitimate in the eyes of its population, also looms as a potent new warfare technique. In 1991, information technology already had changed warfighting. The global positioning system (GPS) allowed US and allied ground units participating in the "left hook" flanking attack against the Iraqi army to maintain their positions accurately on the Kuwaiti desert even during blinding sandstorms. Self-navigating data drones can be employed to search autonomously across numerous information networks. Propaganda via the Internet has already been used by belligerents. Vulnerability to computer virus warfare and other nonlethal disabling technologies now has the attention of national security planners.

(Excerpted from the Air Force's "Air Chronicles")

And from a different "Air Chronicles" article:

One development with implications for the military is the appearance of "hackers" and "phreakers"--persons who gain unauthorized access to computer and telephone systems, respectively. Since their emergence in the 1970s, hackers have repeatedly demonstrated their talent at overcoming computer security systems to access information. In some cases, intruders have gone beyond merely accessing a system; malicious damage has been done to computer databases, causing millions of dollars in loss to corporations and agencies. In most cases, hackers are amateur sleuths who simply treat secure computer systems as the world's greatest puzzle. But what if hacking were done for a more subtle, deliberate purpose? What if an organization of hackers cooperated in a coordinated attempt to gain access to a computer system? What if careful planning and preparation allowed this access to be gained with no trace left behind in the violated C2 system?

Implications of hacking and phreaking for intelligence collection are simple to grasp. A computer network or telephone system is designed to transmit information. Much of that information will form an excellent intelligence picture of an adversary. Simply monitoring the quantity of information flowing through a network can serve as an indicator of pending activity. Readers who served in the military may remember how the Department of Defense's TEMPEST program taught us all that the emissions from electronic equipment can be picked up from remote distances. The TEMPEST program taught us to take precautions against unauthorized monitoring. Computer networks can be monitored through telephone modems, peripheral equipment, power lines, human agents and other means. The information contained in these systems can be monitored without the user's knowledge.

So where is it all going to end up? Will we need soldiers in the future? Of course! Will our government begin Computer warfare as well? Chances are very high that it will. As it all becomes more prevalent the DoD will respond, and you can bet some of the script kiddies in Federal lockup right now will get some special offers.

Somewhat frightenedly yours,


-efisher
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Cyberwar? Nah, just propaganda and vandalism...

[Jack William Bell]

Real cyberwar occurred during Desert Storm when the Iranian governement found that their networks systems had been compromised on several levels.

Cyberwar of the future will include everything from intelligence operations to subtle data modifications that result in supply snafus and bad descision making. In World War II one of the most important 'data' tools available was not encryptionm -- but good maps. And both sides attempted to degrade the other's maps through disinformation and spies. Think how much more powerful it would be to throw off an attacking force by a few miles by messing with their navigation systems?

For real cyberwar look for attacks on databases, inventory control, truck routing, payroll, navigation and targeting systems. Not web pages...

Jack

This is very scary

[Capt Dan]

Right, so at the moment were dealing with progaganda type hacking attacks mainly seeming to be some sort of denial of service (rerouting email, blocking site access, etc).

What happens when these guys, or someone else, really starts to go at it?

The good cracker is much cheaper to outfit than a professional soldier.

What does a cracker need? A fast computer (around ~4000 for top of the line), a reasonably fast net connection, a bag of doritos, and storage in a cool dry place. What does a single foot soldier need? Weapons and Equipment, barracks, transportation, a support staff (cooks, medics, pot scrubbers...), artillary, aircraft...

Say the military has 20 good crackers. What would they do? Sit them all in a room and make sure they share all their secrets and skills, making each one of them that much more dangerous. I don't know much about network security. But I do know firewalls will not stop a military cracker. They will know all the tips and tricks by heart. If there is a security hole, these guys would be able to find it and abuse it with some serious Ninja-Like-Tactics.

Then toss in the whole concept of Nationalism. Remember that lecture back in World History? Possibly the most powerful force in history. A single soldier will look a man in the face and then pump him full of lead for his country, knowing that he may die in the process. Call it the Military Mindset if you will.

What would a cracker do, when he/she has the same Mindset and desire to serve his/her country, but all he/she sees is a digital world, and doesn't have to look that other soldier in the face? Doesn't have to worry about dying in battle? Would they have an issue to shuting down a power grid? Taking out communications? What if that power grid ran the ICU of a children's hospital? What if they hacked into a nuke plant and caused a melt down? Would they care? My point is that these would not be same type of cracker we all know and love. We're talkin' some serious Neuromancer type wackos.

NOTE: Despite the user name, I am not currently, nor have I been, in the armed forces. So I could be completely wrong.