The increasing dependency of a growing number of organizations on the Internet has served to increase the number of targets for hackers, particularly those organizations that have not given adequate attention to securing their network as they should. Even those networks not connected to the Internet are not immune from penetration by hackers. This is a threat that shows no sign of ever slowing down. More likely it will only increase over time, as cyber-capabilities are developed by more and more entities.
While the cold war never escalated to a clash of arms between the major world powers, throughout Asia there were several border disputes and other regional small conflicts, and proxy wars fought between the West and the Soviet Union. India and Pakistan engaged in several armed border disputes, and China engaged both India and the Soviet Union in similar small conflicts.
Today, warfare takes place in cyberspace. The increasing dependency of a growing number of organizations on the Internet has served to increase the number of targets for hackers, particularly those organizations that have not given adequate attention to securing their network as they should.
Even those networks not connected to the Internet are not immune from penetration by hackers. Witness the disabling of the Iranian nuclear program by introducing the Stuxnet and Duqu malware. All that was needed was for an infected medium, unknowingly or intentionally, to be introduced into the network. The malware could then spread throughout the network. The result was that the Iranian scientists were forced to suspend operations in order to disinfect the system.
Last year, a hacking war erupted between India and Pakistan, with groups on each side defacing Web sites belonging to organizations in their enemy nation. Though brief, the targets in that digital war included the Web sites of the Press Club of India (PCI) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Fortune quotes Martin Libicki, senior management scientist with the RANDCorp., to say that “We’re seeing this as a common form of attack. “This is a relatively easy attack to carry off, and the cost in terms of damage isn’t very large.”
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