The threat to the physical security of the USA is a constant theme broadcast over the airwaves the last decade; however, equally dangerous cases of cyber espionage have received very little unified attention. Nonetheless, in recent weeks Americans have seen a spate of coordinated attacks on parts of her infrastructure. Hackers, (many emanating from Cold War adversaries Russia and China) have successfully penetrated US government agencies, America's military industrial complex and on June 1, 2011 her diplomatic corps. A thorough examination of the attacks and US vulnerability is necessary.
James Bond’s Gadgets
Espionage has always been a dangerous part of conflict between national ideologies and the reasons for spying are as diverse as the spies themselves. For the spy; however, being labeled a spy by his adversary is devastating – but getting caught with unauthorized documents, is usually fatal. Subsequently, with the advancement of technology, the art of spying changed. Lies and clandestineness gave way to paraphernalia and distance.
Miniaturization and magnification reached its apex during the Cold War as smaller and more powerful devices allowed spies to capture significant bits of information from considerable distance. Controversial spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg supposedly smuggled the complete plans to American’s atomic bomb in a few small suitcases. In 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers photographed Soviet secrets from the edge of the stratosphere. In 1985 spy John Walker trafficked a top secret radio cipher card to the Soviet Union in an envelope. By 2009, computer technology allowed young Bradley Manning to release over a million documents, affecting nearly every nation on the planet, on a handful of CDs.
The Computer Spy
007 had to sneak into Blofeld’s offices to steal plans for the latest diabolical operation. Today, James would probably be replaced by Moneypenny who, while manipulating Q’s computer virus safely from England, needs only an internet connection to attack SPECTRE. Unfortunately, with an increased reliance on computers for controlling most of a nation’s infrastructure, Blofeld could do the same to England.
A recent PEW poll indicated that a significant percentage of the American population feels there is a need to protect the public by extending the Patriot Act. However, few agencies have examined America’s vulnerability to and the potential harm fresh computer attacks could cause to her financial, communication, energy or transportation networks.
The Cyber War
Government – The first large scale cyber-attacks seemed intent to compromise US government computers. On November 28, 2008, Julian Barnes wrote in The Los Angeles Times, “…a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers…may have originated in Russia.”
Military Industrial Complex – While defense department and government computers are desirable sources of information for espionage, they also prove harder for the infiltrator to maintain his or her covertness. Subsequently, spies changed tactics and began focusing on the next link in the chain – the private corporation. On May 22, 2011, America’s largest defense contractor was attacked by foreign entities. Fahmida Rashid of IT Security and Network News wrote on May 27, 2011 “Lockheed Martin has been battling a major disruption to its computer systems after its IT security team detected a network intrusion….” Wayne Rash, also of IT Security Network, insisted on June 1, 2011 that these attacks “…appear to mark an escalation of a cyber-cold war….”
Diplomatic – Following the corporate intrusions at Lockheed, Google discovered individual email accounts were compromised by hackers. Possibly perceived as the weakest link in the security chain, spies augmented their governmental and corporate attacks with assaults on administration workers, including some in the White House. Mike Swift of The Mercury News reported on June 1, 2011 that “…hundreds of Gmail accounts…of senior U.S. officials…were targeted in a concerted hacking campaign originating from Jinan, China.” Swift continued, “….the latest attacks…were intended to spy on U.S....government officials….”
Cybergeddon
Images of espionage and national attacks are prejudiced toward that which is easily observable. It conjures pictures of Japanese spies passing tactical information of American battleship deployments in Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941. The public can readily grasp the description of an Al Qaida sleeper cell in Washington DC transferring information to terrorist planners in fundamentalist Pakistan. But, who cares if China reads government emails? Computer espionage appears innocuous and less threatening.
However, data incursions initiated by governments, are anything but harmless. America’s national infrastructure is highly computer dependent making it cyber vulnerable. Sebastian Smith, journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, reported Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI stated on January 7, 2009, “Cyber-attacks pose the greatest threat to the United States after nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction.”
Cybergeddon, Smith argues, occurs “when an advanced economy – where almost everything of importance is linked to or controlled by computers - falls prey to hackers….” Wayne Rash forecast such events when he insisted, “ there is a high likelihood it will start attacking other industries as well… banks, an electric utility, or a phone system…are [all] at risk.”
With repeated attacks on America’s infrastructure and diplomatic corps, one could argue Cold War adversaries have begun anew. Russian attacks on the Pentagon’s computers are followed by Chinese assaults on U.S. official’s email accounts. And while politicians view the events as insignificant and not worth jeopardizing financial relations, the fact remains, America is in an extremely sensitivity position and these attacks are as real as any other throughout history.
Frank W. Hardy - Frank has 36 years of airline experience navigating every ocean & continent. Flying 25,000 hours in 42 years presents a rare historical ...
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