Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
weapon of mass destruction (WMD) for which there is no defense available to the
target country.
Information technology (IT) asymmetrical adversarialism includes the use of
a single computer located across the world to launch denial-of-service attacks on
government systems. It is the use of an e-mail virus to distribute a slave program to
hundreds or thousand of computers across the Internet that lies dormant for years
waiting for a single master command of “attack system 192.168.xxx.yyy.” These
attacks are very easy and inexpensive to launch; they are very difficult and very
expensive to defend against.
IA justification is that we (global citizens) are playing by new warfare rules,
rules that we do not even know about, perhaps even a game of unrestricted warfare
where there are no rules. As previously mentioned, war is about business, about
commerce, about economic success. A lack of arable land and potable water is a
strong motivation to go take them from someone else. A desire for greater economic
success, faster, with minimal cost is a strong motivation to take what you need
from someone else. Traditional warfare required physical proximity of people and
equipment. A cyber-combatant attacking an economic interest can do so from any
Internet connection. Traditional warfare was one man, one weapon (e.g. one spear,
one crossbow, one gun). A single cyber-combatant may control thousands of cyber-
munitions from thousands of separate locations.
13.5.3.7 Cyber-Terrorism
Using any of thousands of readily available tools on the Internet, a cyber-terrorist
may launch attacks against an industrial or political power's critical infrastructure
that includes electrical grid(s), telecommunication service, air traffic control, water
supply, food supply, transportation, and credit card service (transaction process-
ing). “Advances in information technology and the necessity of improved efficiency,
however, have precipitated a steadily and rapidly increasing amount of automation
in, and interconnection among, these systems.” According to the USA PATRIOT
Act, “America's critical infrastructures include energy (electric power, oil and gas),
transportation (rail, air, merchant marine), finance and banking, information and
telecommunications, public health, emergency services, water, chemical, govern-
ment, defense industrial base, food, agriculture, and postal and shipping.”
In terms of threats or threat space, one type of threat is people. People may
exhibit adverse behavior with malicious intent. However, malicious intent is relative
perception; one person's malice is another's patriotism or another's cause (religious
or political). IA justification includes consideration of your organization as part
of the critical infrastructure or in direct support of critical infrastructure. If your
organization is not the target, it may be the weakest link. IA justification may come
The President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board,
National Strategy to Secure
Cyberspace
.
