The Cold War 2.0

As in many other aspects of life on Earth, if you want to find out more about large-scale cyberattacks, just ask Google.

The search engine giant’s recent highly-publicised security breach within its Chinese operations drew the world’s attention to how even astonishingly tech-savvy corporations such as Google can fall prey to malicious attacks by highly capable hackers.

Although the attacks on Google have caused one of the biggest tech splashes in history, other serious attacks have come before. The story of Markus Hess, the Soviet-era German hacker whose attempts to break into the US military databases in the late-1980s prompted the author Clifford Stoll to write a novel about the events—and his role in Hess’ capture. Even Google itself has declared just how widespread cyberattacks are on their official blog:

“Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis,” Google’s Chief Legal Officer and SVP of Corporate Devlopment David Drummond has written. Additionally, Mr Drummond reveals on the blog post that these attacks experienced by Google were in fact suffered by at least 20 other large corporations from the internet, finance, media, technology, and chemical sectors.

In fact, the type and scale of attack experienced by Google in China will only increase if action isn’t taken. According to a recent report, cyber attacks on corporations and indeed governments are widespread and growing worse by the day. The world’s largest security technology company, McAfee Inc., has recently announced that owners of critical infrastructure—oil, electricity, water, suppliers and the like– report that their networks and systems are under repeated assault by hackers looking for confidential and sensitive information. Far from being a set of 12-year-old hackers fooling around in their parents’ basement, these attackers are often sophisticated corporations and sometimes even foreign governments.
Greg Day, McAfee’s security analyst says that many governments have been developing various means to hack into the security systems of other governments and corporations. “Certainly if we look back to our virtual criminology report last year, a number of countries have been proactive in developing cyber attack techniques,” he said, stating that the US, China, Russia, and France have disclosed that they are researching this domain.

“I think the tough bit of this is that some governments will admit to it, but others won’t. In many ways cyberattacks are an opportunity for nations that weren’t traditional superpowers to become a credible power in the future,” Day says, responding to the claim made recently by The Guardian that we are in the middle of a new ‘cold war’ that is being conducted on a cyber level.

The impact of these attacks is concerning. “A cyber attack on a US bank could have more effect than 9/11,” said Day. For every day that an electric, water, or banking corporation is unable to operate due to security breaches, these corporations, the government, and the taxpayer must foot a $6 million (£3.75 million) bill.

But the monetary cost isn’t the only issue that impacts on the average person. Systematic theft of personal information as well as the malfunction of our essential services could pose multiple risks to daily life. Indeed, 80% of the respondents in McAfee’s report say that within the next five years they expect to see failures of their company or even deaths of individuals as a result of cyberattacks. For the average individual, this translates into unemployment and heartache.

Lest the doom and gloom overshadow the whole enterprise, Day does suggest a path to recovery.

“First and foremost we need some recognition. The problem is still in its infancy. Spying has been going on for ages, but spying through technology has evolved only in the last few decades. We need to recognize the problem, and then use legislation, regulation, and funding to stop it,” he says.

More than anything, though, in order for us to secure best secure ourselves, we need to recognize that there is a need for it.

“Only 57% of our respondents regularly applied updates, which is like security 101,” says Day. “Many of them have neglected security as a result of the recession, but the fact is that the security industry evolves at a fast pace and we need to help clunky critical infrastructures to close that gap and keep up a more dynamic pace.”

But back to Google. Though the company may not be operating on rotary telephones with one person in a room watching a variety of meters and dials, the breach of the company’s security should serve as a warning to consumers that the worst is yet to come if action isn’t taken. Unless we fancy giving up loads of money and anguish to poorly-secured corporations that have yet to enter the 21st century.