In response to the ongoing onslaught of cyberattacks on numerous companies, individuals, governments and any other entities connected to the internet, the US government has named its first commander, Gen. Keith Alexander, for the U.S. Cyber Command; which is given a mission of defending against cyberattacks.
Cyberattacks are very complicated but a simple scenario for illustration would start with a botnet. A botnet is an application that gets installed on pc users computers without their knowledge by either opening a malicious attachment in an e-mail or downloading a file (i.e. music downloads). The application sends emails from the infected computer without the users knowledge and thats how it spreads. Now the cyberattack happens when the all the computers that have the application installed are told to do certain actions as a big group of computers. The action of millions of computers trying to access a single website can cause the site to crash and/or simply overload routers and servers and bring an entire infrastructure down [without the PC user ever knowing their computer was being used for an attack elsewhere].
Enron comes to mind when I hear about cyberattacks and infrastructure dangers. While Enron and cyberattacks have no correlation the thought of manipulating energy grids and shutting down power does have a correlation with Enron and cyberattacks. Apparently the computers used to control the energy grids were made to be used in isolation to any other network. Problem is cheap PCs and improved technology has connected almost all energy grids to the internet which makes it susceptible to cyberattacks. The control systems and energy infrastructure are fragile. The best solution seems to be to take systems offline. Bruce Averill writes about why energy companies need to pay attention in the Journal of Energy Security.
Network infrastructures keeps growing for different uses and governments can control the internet more than they have in the past, but should they? Is an Army General the right one to lead against cyber crimes?
Sources:
- http://www.nsa.gov/about/leadership/bio_alexander.shtml
- http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-20005749-42.html
- http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123205791
- http://www.topbits.com/botnet.html
- http://www.ensec.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=243:canvassing-the-cyber-security-landscapewhy-energy-companies-need-to-pay-attention&catid=106:energysecuritycontent0510&Itemid=361
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