Securing public infrastructure
Securing public infrastructure
Jim Geovedi, Contributor, Jakarta
A cyberwar between Indonesia and Malaysia was sparked by the
dispute over the Ambalat oil fields in the Sulawesi Sea, and,
possibly, the impact of the ending of the amnesty for illegal
Indonesian workers.
On March 5, 2005, Kuala Lumpur protested what it said was
intrusion into its territory by an Indonesian naval vessel, while
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the Indonesian
military to make its presence felt in the disputed waters.
The next day, the website of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
was hacked and plastered with hostile Indonesian-sounding, anti-
Malaysian messages; messages reminiscent of 1963's Konfrontasi
and the Gerakan Ganyang Malaysia (Crush Malaysia Movement).
What followed sent companies and organizations on both sides
of the straits scrambling to patch up their security systems and
to temporarily shut down websites deemed a security risk.
Cyberwar is not real war
Declaring war is a privilege reserved for recognized leaders of
nations, not a bunch of unelected kids, even they believe they
are acting on behalf of their nation.
By definition, a cyberwar is a coordinated, systematic attack
on computers, communications networks, databases and media.
Other related terms are cyberterrorism, cybercrime, strategic
information warfare, electronic warfare.
Information systems are complex and interconnected
infrastructures upon which many nations are now heavily
dependent.
They rest on insecure foundations -- the ability to network
has far outpaced the ability to protect networks. With this
dependency comes vulnerability to attack from virtually anyone,
anywhere with a computer and a connection to the Internet.
Today, information technology -- and the ability to use it --
is more widely available than ever. Widespread, easy access to
the Internet, combined with the ability to become anonymous,
presents a completely new spectrum of threats to national
security.
Not only can a government, group, or individual utilize
information technology to disrupt the infrastructure of whole
nations, but, often, attacks are not even noticeable until the
damage has been done.
Malicious hackers find weaknesses
Malicious hackers hit whoever they can, and target any website
that has any kind of weakness. They use scanning tools to
broadcast a search for security holes in domains that are hosted
in Indonesia or Malaysia.
And they often pay little attention to the nature of the
website. Many websites will remain vulnerable to malicious hacker
attacks until network and system administrators tighten up the
security of their servers.
Most hacker attacks, including website defacements, are made
through a chain of passive servers that act as springboards.
But all malicious hackers represent threats to organizations
for their ability to gain unauthorized access to sensitive
information.
Future expectations
Cyber tools and technologies are now on the way for both offense
and defense. Networks -- and their vulnerability -- are evolving
so rapidly that new tools for network mapping, scanning and
probing will become increasingly critical to both attackers and
defenders.
Deployment of new or improved security tools will help protect
against both remote and inside threats.
New and better technologies could provide defenders with
improved capabilities for detecting and attributing subtle
malicious activity, and enable computer networks to respond to
attacks automatically.
However, defense responses will remain at a disadvantage until
more fundamental changes to computer and network architectures
are made -- changes for which improved security has equal billing
with increased functionality.
For attackers, viruses and worms are likely to become more
controllable, precise, and predictable -- making them more
suitable for weaponization.
In addition, tools for distributed hacking or denial of
service -- the coordinated use of multiple, compromised computers
or of independent and mobile software agents -- will mature as
network connectivity and bandwidth increase.
They could provide attackers with planning aids to develop
optimal strategies against potential targets and to more
accurately predict effects.
Attackers and defenders alike, it seems, better be ready at
all times and must never let down their guard in anticipating the
future.
The author is an information security consultant at PT Bellua
Asia Pacific, Indonesia. Jim is scheduled to speak at the Bellua
Cyber Security Conference in Jakarta on March 23 and 24
(www.bellua.net). He is also a contributor to the OpenBSD and
FreeBSD projects, and an active member of HERT, the Hacker
Emergency Response Team.