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Ethics and practice in science communication / edited by Susanna Priest, Jean Goodwin, and Michael F. Dahlstrom.

To explore the likelihood of an accidental cyber war being triggered by a lone, rogue hacker, we first must evaluate how difficult it would be for an individual, working alone, to construct a cyber weapon. What resources, skills and finances would be involved? If an individual were planning such an act, could the nation's defense, intelligence and law enforcement agencies detect the individual actions in time to intercede? One of the senior analysts at Spy-Ops, a company that provides security, intelligence and defense training and consulting, told me that, given there are more than 250 new viruses released monthly, the skills and resources are out there. During my testimony and hacking demonstration before Congress in 2001, I was asked how many people could do what I just presented. My reply was thousands, and I am afraid that number has increased significantly since then. Spy-Ops offers a summary threat matrix in an Intelligence Briefing on Cyber Warfare (see graphic). It indicates how severe the threat of a cyber arms race is and the degree of ease with which a cyber weapon could be constructed. If an individual has the knowledge to create a cyber weapon, they also have the skills to cloak the originating source or location. In fact, a reasonably skilled hacker could attack a government computer, compromise it and make it look like the attack was launched there. If that were to occur, it would be hard to believe that it was someone else using our computers. Even a self-published pamphlet called "Secrets of a Super Hacker" is available on eBay for just 99 cents. For these reasons and more, we know that a lone, rogue hacker could launch an attack that could spiral out of control and escalate to a full blow cyber war. A computer is a weapon waiting to be loaded and used. It's important to wake up to this threat and take immediate action to reduce the risk that cyber weapons pose to peace and stability.

Government security, 2008-01, Vol.7 (1), p.11

Triggering A Cyber War

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Ethics and practice in science communication / edited by Susanna Priest, Jean Goodwin, and Michael F. Dahlstrom.

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Triggering A Cyber War

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