President Obama was in Russia discussing arms control. Administration officials expect tentative agreements soon; however, they could be disappointed if the subject of cyber weapons becomes part of the discussions. Many cyber intelligence analysts have speculated that these talks will be the first discussions to include talks about limiting cyber weapons. Russia has attempted multiple time in the past to get the United Nations to examine the possibility of developing international legal regimes restricting the development, production, and use of especially dangerous types of information weapons. So far, however, their draft proposals have been tabled and replaced with resolutions that addressed only information security. The current U.S. position on cyber weapons is on fostering international cooperation rather than trying to limit cyber weapons proliferation that is estimated at already encompassing some 150 countries and multiple criminal organizations not to mention terrorist groups.
INTEL: Sources report that in May of this year the Finish military established a cyber warfare unit.
Given that cyber weapons require no special or restricted materials, no large or unique production facilities, no significant financial backing and skills that are taught in tens of thousands of programming classes available around the world, how would you ever enforce a cyber weapons ban? Just look at the challenges U.N. WMD inspectors have trying to do their job. WMD development requires more infrastructure, more highly skilled technicians that are not in an abundant supply and much money to fund.
Contrasting the two, it would be an impossible task to verify a cyber weapons ban. What would you do about all the offensive cyber weapons that already exist? Many believe that a treaty without a means of verification is less than useless, it is dangerous.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
To the author of this article, Mr. Kevin Coleman:
You wrote: “…how would you ever enforce a cyber weapons ban? Just look at the challenges U.N. WMD inspectors have trying to do their job. WMD development requires more infrastructure, more highly skilled technicians that are not in an abundant supply and much money to fund.”
Control the sale of decompilers, for starters. In the European capital where I usually live, there are only four of them and their owners are perfectly well known (and envied) in the I.T. m
Kevin
You were right again in your April 20 blog posting about North Korea using cyber attacks to respond to the actions by the United nations and you are right about Russia in this posting as well. As I have said many time – you are right a hell of allot more than you should be!!!
I am not sure your how you gather your cyber intelligence but I am glad you are on our side and share your insights on this blog.
Keep it up
Israel released a cyber-warfare program that all you have to do is sign up, then the some “cyber-warriors” in Israel use it as a tool to hack Hamas sites.
The article about the subject below is on this website it called “Israel’s Looking for a Few Good Cybermen” if anyone wants to know more.
I think that it would be very difficult to place a “ban” on cyberweapons. As soon as a “weapon” is identified, the hole is usually patched, the routers reprogrammed, etc…
I feel that they need to make international hacker laws, something that is universally agreed upon so it is easier to prosecute those responsible. Hacking is not illegal in some countries and it is even encouraged in some.
The biggest problem in prosecuting that I see is it is just too easy, with the current technology, to spoof/ hide/ obfuscate the attacker’s location. In most cases, even if we do find out the source country, they will either deny it or claim it was some rogue hacker group acting on their own.
Hopefully with IPv6 implementation it will close a lot of the current IP woes. But this is yet to be seen…
Paul,
Excellent, EMP attacks are a very real threat. It is reported that the US used E-bombs in Iraq. If we have them, unfortunately, so do other countries. The US military has taken steps to protect itself against EMP, but what about our civilian infrastructure?
This would be much more disastrous and costly than a DDoS attack.
Great one,Mr. pres!They will just integrate your info into their matrix……History is the game board…