Looming Threats in Cyber Warfare, Espionage Hero, & Technologies Offer Hope

Posted by Andrew M. Scott

Advances in technology and our increased reliance on technology to deliver services to citizens have created a new battleground for both perpetrators and victims - one that is fought virtually. Government agencies are no exception. In its ongoing military conflict with the U.S., the real threat of cyber warfare capabilities from Syria, Iran and China poses imminent threats.

The new arena of cyber-attacks offers assailants the opportunity to gather critical information by infiltrating networks and data, then using that information to attack their victim with highly sophisticated tactics and tools such as malware, malicious files and spear phishing.

When put on a global scale and used across national borders, this new form of warfare poses the potential to shut down critical infrastructures and wreak financial havoc.

Syria's Electronic Army has already successfully attacked the networks of U.S. media outlets, including its Twitter hack of The Associated Press earlier this year which erased $136 billion in equity market value. The hacking group also claims responsibility for the August shutdown of the New York Times website.

According to the Wall Street Journal, current and former U.S. officials believe Iranian-backed hackers have escalated a campaign of cyber assaults against U.S. corporations by launching infiltration and surveillance missions against the computer networks running energy companies.

But while the tools and techniques of the perpetrators have evolved and improved, so to have the solutions and tactics used to mitigate these threats and attacks.

"If an attack occurs?  We can be sure that the US Government will step in quickly to regulate the cyber capabilities of our energy industry," cyber warfare expert Eric O'Neill says in an online blog post.  "It is therefore critical for companies engaged in infrastructure to establish themselves as forward thinkers in cyber defense and response."

O'Neill will discuss these technologies and best practices for securing the nation's cyber infrastructure next month at Carahsoft's Cyber Playbook conference. He will be joined by other cybersecurity experts from the government community (including NSA, DoD and the CIA) who will explore how the cyber landscape has changed the scope of warfare in today's society and examine how the global battle is being fought here in Washington, D.C. As a proud sponsor for the event, Symantec is looking forward to hearing more from O'Neill and his colleagues and we look forward to sharing how our own solutions are helping agencies defend their networks from these cyber-attacks.