Cyber+Warfare

=**Cyber Warfare**=

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 * Cyber Warfare** refers to the aggressive use of the internet primarily motivated by political factors to gain access and/or to cause disruption to information, data, computer systems, and critical infrastructures. [8]. It is closely related to the term Information War which Blaise Cronin, both Professor of Information Science at Indiana University and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, defines as “the use of ICTs in lieu of bombs and bullets to achieve speciﬁc military objectives”.

When discussing cyber warfare, many academics refer to Sun Tzu’s writings from the 6th century (BC) in which Sun Tzu states that “seizing the enemy without fighting him is most skilful”. Amit Sharma, who is the “Deputy Director at the Defence Research and Development Organization” in India, explains that cyber warfare is the modern manifestation of Sun Tzu’s writings. [4]

In the most basic sense, internet has not only provided humans with the capability to access and store information conveniently, but also with the unparalleled power to access these virtually unsecured networks of information.

Through examining the various organizations such as Anonymous and WikiLeaks that are associated with cyber attacks, the certain nations that have been observed to be on the frontier of the cyber battlefield, and the fact that  cyber warfare has been continuously emerging over the last decade, this wiki entry will propose that cyber warfare is a growing social concern in the 21 st  century.

History
Cyber warfare emerges as a social concern in the 21st century due to the amount of reliance placed upon technological infrastructures in modern society. Most recently, the actions taken namely by Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, and Mozilla in protest of Stop Online Piracy Act demonstrate awareness not only to the issue regarding the proposed bill, but also to the looming threat cyber warfare poses. The act of blacking out their websites exemplifies the delicacy of the web while displaying how detrimental it may be for a website if a third party were to gain access to the website’s server. Although this is simply an example of how effective cyber warfare has the potential to be, the fact remains that it is already occurring worldwide and that it has been for approximately the last decade.

Anonymous
The online ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous is a definitive example of an organization accredited with numerous cyber attacks ranging over a variety of issues worldwide. Relating to the previously mentioned protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act, Anonymous took its own cyber action against “the Web sites of the U.S. Justice Department and several major entertainment companies” after the take-down of Megaupload’s website. The assault consisted of multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attack) which essentially commanded numerous hosts to simultaneously send requests to the targeted sites. This was labeled as the group’s largest and most successful attack.

WikiLeaks
Another prime organization associated with cyber warfare is WikiLeaks, which specializes in disclosing classified documents to the general public. WikiLeaks takes part in acts of cyber warfare to gain and present confidential information it deems belonging to corrupt administrations around the world. Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, additionally claims that the organization is under constant cyber attack predominantly by the same corrupt groups it seeks to expose. More recently in 2011, WikiLeaks made a claim that the Bank of America commenced "cyber attacks against the [WikiLeaks site] infrastructure to get data on document submitters." [11]. Thus demonstrating how the organization has been under virtual attack for the purpose of gaining access to information.

 WikiLeaks, established in July of 2007, has since been the pack-leader in the game of whistle-blowing. Its founder and chief editor Julian Assange has made it his mission to the  fair sharing of information between organizations in power and the general population.  Some may argue his actions have caused more harm than good, whereas some may also refer to his actions as acts against the state; a new form war, referring to it as a cyber-war.  With assistance from various internal (individuals working within the WikiLeaks organization) and external personalities, WikiLeaks seeks out and summarize classified information which they believe should be known to the general public. By evaluating the obtained material, they conclude the validity of the incident or if the content holds relevant merit. The raw material, which is the classified material is voluntarily shared by individuals such as; corporate employees, journalists, or even civilian personalities which hold or manage to obtain classified information regarding certain events or action. WikiLeaks pursues cases involving abuses of power by governments or corporations, censored or otherwise restricted material of political, ethical or diplomatic nature; while avoiding materials of speculative nature.  Since the conception of the website, WikiLeaks has been able to publish hundreds of thousands of documents covering events from a huge range of subjects. In October of 2010, the website made available more than 400,000 secret US military logs [15|  which detailed their up-to-date activities in Iraq. It also managed to obtain the Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta Files, December 2010 which detailed the procedures and restrictions for managing the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: super;">[15]. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> In a press conference held in The Pentagon on August of 2010, regarding Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, Admiral Mike Mullen bluntly accuses the actions of WikiLeaks as a form of a crime against the state by stating, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">“ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">” <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> To which, Assange rebutted by saying that there hasn <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">’ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">t been any such documented cases and pointed the irony behind the statements made by ADML Mullen. According to Assange, the main purpose of WikiLeaks is to create transparency in government activities which reduces corruption and develops fair dealings. Digging up and exposing confidential articles of wrong-doings leads to the embarrassment of governments or corporations. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: super;">[11]. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> This negative exposure creates a negative image, resulting in the reduction of their credibility amongst their population; hitting them right where it hurts. And when the risk of discovery and chances of embarrassment rises, corrupt or ill-natured actions are thought about twice before being performed.

=**International Concerns**=

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<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">China makes viruses for Cyberwar First-Strike
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> In 2007, the Chinese military has equipped great weapon with developing viruses. This fact makes threat against to [|US Department of Defence (DoD)]. "The [|PLA] [People's Liberation Army] has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computer systems and networks," the Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military power said. "In 2005, the PLA began to incorporate offensive [|CNO] [computer network operations] into its exercises, primarily in first strikes against enemy networks." Director of the technical analysis group at the US University of New Hampshire's Justiceworks Andrew Macpherson said this tells us how the Chinese military concentrate on cyber warfare. "The Chinese were a lot more concerned about our viruses because they were using off-the-shelf [Western] software," Macpherson said. "Now there's no mention of that, and much more of the discussion is about first-strike capabilities." Also, The Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Timothy Thomas said China has begun to work on viruses since late 1990s, when a PLA processed on both network attacks and virus killing software. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> "China clearly has the people to conduct 'take home battle', a reference to battle conducted with laptops at home that allow thousands of citizens to hack foreign computer systems when needed," Thomas said. He pointed to a 1999 "network battle" fought between Chinese and American hackers after the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade as an example. After the back-and-forth of site defacing and [|distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)] attacks, the PLA's official newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, called for training a large number of "network fighters" and using civilian computer hackers to take part in any future info <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">rmation war. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: sub;">

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Obama vs China
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: sub;"> In 2011, China menaced the Obama administration with cyber attacks. However, the US government is not only one who received threats; American Corporations also had damage too. As similar case with this, Chinese government harmed hundreds of British CEOs' companies by hacking their system. The former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke said “What would we do if we discovered that Chinese explosives had been laid throughout our national electrical system? The public would demand a government response. If, however, the explosive is a digital bomb that could do even more damage, our response is apparently muted – especially from our government.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: sub;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">According to Clarke journal, US government officials admit acknowledge that the government has any defensive measures against Chinese cyber attack. Also, he said “Rather than defending American companies, the Pentagon seems focused on "active defense,” also cyber offence will be active when Chinese cyber hackers attack to US.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Google vs China
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: sub;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: sub;"> On June 2, 2011, one of the biggest web search company Google has reported case that Chinese hackers attacked hundreds of Gmail accounts, which included US government officials. The hacking campaign which happened on June 1 from Jinan, China used malware and tricked users to steal information of them. Google said "The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples' forwarding and delegation settings," <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: sub;">However, cyber attack motivates to get financial gains and the US government officials said that they are looking to the matter seriously. As this case, Google cannot handle the relationship with Chinese government due to hacking attempt. After that, Google has pulled out their service from China; because it is not first time that Google accuse China. Company indicted Chinese government about blocked its Gmail service in China, but China said it is unacceptable. Nowadays, Chinese hackers carry on cyber war between China and Western powers and westerns area people says that kind of attack get financial support from Chinese government.

What is Anonymous?
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left; vertical-align: sub;">Operating both offline and online, the group [|Anonymous] has become infamous for their actions. Perceived as some as just teenagers with too much time on their hands, and to others as an elite hacker organization, or hacktivists, and their is a hint of truth all of that. Mostly associated with [|4chan]due to its origins there, with them being the first group to use the title. Anonymous has grown from this, the main draw being that anyone can be part of Anonymous, there is no single stance on issues, it is just groups of people each with their own thoughts and values using the name Anonymous and the anonymity provided by the internet to cover their tracks while expressing their opinions and so they can hide their actions. There’s no formal structuring due to the nature of the group, whoever is online is in charge.

Why are they controversial?
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: sub;">Anonymous is known for various attacks, mostly [|DDoS]attacks against sites for various reasons. A DDoS (distributed denial of service attack) simply put is basically when a site gets more traffic then it can handle. One way of performing this is with the tool [|LOIC](Low Orbit Ion Cannon) that Anonymous uses. DDoS attacks are not that harmful for any prepared site, and may be likened to a sit in or demonstration. Another tactic used is called doxing, where they reveal as much personal information on someone or a company. Although DDoS attacks may be simple or even harmless, the targets and enemies they choose to make are corporations and governments.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: sub;"> One of their most recent attacks was [|Operation Payback], which was an attempt to get revenge on the companies that were against Wikileaks, and those who put founder Assange behind bars. Companies such as Visa and Mastercard were successfully DDoSed due to Anonymous’ efforts. (Harris)

<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: sub;"> There are also offshoots of Anonymous known for more than just DDoSing sites, such as [|LulzSec]or Lulz Security. (Schwartz) While active last year the both DDoSed sites, along with hacking and releasing user’s passwords. Unlike a simple DDoS this affected more then just web page owners or government websites, users were put in the middle of it with personal information.

Are they involved in cyber warfare?
<span style="background-color: white; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: sub;">For the general mischief Anonymous is normally know for, DDoS attacks, it depends on how you look at DDOS attack. If you consider a DDoS attack as a sit in or a protest, they are no more harmful as something like [|Occupy Wallstreet]. However, if you look at it as a threat or act of war these simple DDoS attacks Anonymous are a large threat.

Contributors
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left; vertical-align: sub;">Huda, Emad Jordanov, Dimitar Kim, DongHee Kowalski, Tom Low, Alexander