{"id":14959,"date":"2014-07-30T12:15:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T02:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=14959"},"modified":"2014-08-01T09:22:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T23:22:32","slug":"cyber-wrap-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/cyber-wrap-37\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber wrap"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n With this week marking 100 years since the start of World War I, the Australian Army\u2019s release of its Future Land Warfare 2014 report<\/a> (PDF) is a timely consideration of what war means in the 21st century and where we might see it develop. Cyber issues feature heavily, from developing Army\u2019s cyber capabilities, to leveraging omnipresent communications technologies, and appreciating the interconnectedness of the cyber commons with those of sea, land, air, space and electromagnetic spectrum. The report foresees a future where social media, like Facebook and Twitter, will be \u2018widespread and accessible to both friend and foe, potentially allowing any individual to influence political outcomes, transform perceptions of events, and create positive or negative responses\u2019.<\/i><\/p>\n Still with Army, this quarter\u2019s Australian Army Journal<\/i> carries an article by Captain Nathan Mark in which he makes the case for cyber forensic investigative capabilities to support indigenous forces. The full piece is available here<\/a> (PDF).<\/i><\/p>\n Futurist cyber considerations were also on the table at the Aspen Security Forum held last week. In a session on \u2018The Future of Warfare\u2019, panellists spoke on a range of topics including disruptive technologies, big data, quantum computing and cyber espionage. Dawn Meyerriecks, Deputy Director of Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency (and formerly of AOL), spoke on the ubiquity of cyber, noting that the continuing fusion of the physical and virtual worlds is the<\/i> central consideration going forward. Meyerriecks also spoke on the impact of the Internet of Things<\/a> (IoT), where refrigerators and smart LED lights are being hijacked to nefarious ends like distributed denial of service (DDoS) and spam attacks. Check out the full session here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stepping back from the future cyber environment to today\u2019s realities, let\u2019s look at the cyber-side of current global instability.<\/p>\n In Iraq, Islamic State is reportedly<\/a> backing up its sectarian insurgency operations with boots-on-the-ground in cyberspace, employing hackers to gather intelligence with malware distributed through social media, compromised attachments and browser vulnerabilities. With programs such as Njrat, hackers can target Iraqi networks and computers to steal files and monitor local environments by controlling in-built video cameras and microphones. Social media has been a significant part of the IS\u2019 strategy, with the group maintaining a prolific Twitter presence to shape and promote its message. IS even has its own Android app called The Dawn of Glad Tidings<\/i>, which provides users with access to news and allows the jihadist group to tweet on the user\u2019s behalf\u2014effectively deploying each user profile as a digital megaphone for IS activities. For more, check out this piece<\/a> in The Atlantic<\/i> last month.<\/p>\n On Gaza, the Chair of the US House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, has this week voiced concerns<\/a> that cyberspace might be the next front in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. While declining to identify the players by name, Rogers said that an \u2018unseen war\u2019 was being waged by nation states in the region, which had the potential to escalate tensions and undermine stability. This follow-up piece<\/a> from CBS points the finger squarely at Iran. Non-state actors have also been active in the conflict, with #OpSaveGaza being waged<\/a> by Anonymous and #OpIsraeliRetaliate brought forward<\/a> by hactivist group the Israeli Elite Force.<\/p>\n On Israel still, it was reported this week that hackers linked to the Unit 61398 of the China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army had, between 2011 and 2012, exfiltrated data on the \u2018Iron Dome\u2019 missile defence system from three Israeli defence contractors. It\u2019s been claimed<\/a> that the PLA unit\u2014exposed<\/a> by Mandiant for hacking against the US last year\u2014was also able to take data related to other projects on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), ballistic rockets, and the Arrow III missile interceptor. Head on over to Krebs on Security<\/i><\/a> for a detailed take on the data raid.<\/p>\n Finally, our friends at the Center for New American Security (CNAS) have written on the MH17 tragedy<\/a> in Ukraine to highlight the challenges posed by proliferation of high-tech weaponry and the disintegration of traditional state-centric hierarchies. On cyber, the authors point to malicious non-state cyber capabilities, the problems of attribution, and the balancing act of pursing policies that achieve certain goals while not upsetting broader stability\u2014the US cyber-espionage indictment<\/a> against five PLA members versus positive great-power relations being a case in point.<\/p>\n David Lang is an intern in ASPI\u2019s International Cyber Policy Centre. Image courtesy of Flickr user Israel Defense Forces<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With this week marking 100 years since the start of World War I, the Australian Army\u2019s release of its Future Land Warfare 2014 report (PDF) is a timely consideration of what war means in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":14961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[531],"tags":[488,52,241,837,895,240],"class_list":["post-14959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber-security-2","tag-australian-army","tag-china","tag-hamas","tag-isis","tag-islamic-state","tag-israel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n