OPERATIONAL SECURITY OF UBIQUITOUS INFORMATION - Cyberwar-Netwar: Security in the Information Age - page 110

could be state-sponsored or a rogue nation, but unless you have the cooperation of all the
countries, you will never trace it back.
Stanley : So, every hack will go through North Korea?
Handy : Possibly, if North Korea allows it.
Stanley : If they allow it, can they stop it?
Handy : A vulnerability in one country can result in a vulnerability in all countries.
And this type of thing could happen if we do not have a collective approach or response
to dealing with this type of issue. It is not an easy solution. I am saying there may be a
day when this does happen. How do we deal with it and what should our response be?
Stanley : Unless everyone is onboard it would be like the Spam problem. Unless
everybody is in, then there is always going to be one rogue state
Handy : Again that is a prime management issue. But is the RTA, for instance,
dealing with this type of issue?
Mounier : Actually I am no longer in the RTA. The RTA as you know is involved in
research and technology because of threats. Some threats originate in a country which
could deliberately assist this threat and I am afraid I have no answer to this. I am still
thinking about the problem of cyberwar and cyberspace or other means of terrorism
originating in a rogue state. I think the problem is perhaps political.
Handy : Actually I think what we described was what I would call some kind of a
cyber conflict scenario if not a cyberwar scenario, because they are in fact using a cyber
medium to create chaos, to create death, to create destruction. So, for the basis of this
entire discussion I think is very, very valid.
Erez : I think it is not a question of cyberwar. Why should it be something on the web?
Let us say a terrorist from a certain country, I will not say which one, undertakes a
conventional terrorist attack somewhere with a lot of casualities, the outcome or the
reaction is again political. Would you attack back or would you swallow the situation
and go on? So, such a decision is not usually connected to a cyber attack, but more to
any kind of attack.
Mounier : I am still unable to find an answer to the question of whether security is on
the defensive or the offensive.
Handy : The way I look at this is that everybody is starting to look at the response in
terms of a counter-attack but what I was asking was, what are our resources going to do
to re-secure the network?
Amaral : I have a little story to tell regarding security and cyberwar. It is a real story
that happened in 1987, in France. I was living in Versailles and working in a beautiful
place called Rhea, an ancient military palace. It had been converted into a research
institute. And it was my first assignment and I was working with Internet at the time. It