Spies watch rise of virtual terrorists

THE bomb hit the ABC's headquarters, destroying everything except one digital transmission tower. The force of the blast left Aunty's site a cratered mess.

Just weeks before, a group of terrorists flew a helicopter into the Nissan building, creating an inferno that left two dead. Then a group of armed militants forced their way into an American Apparel clothing store and shot several customers before planting a bomb outside a Reebok store.

This terror campaign, which has been waged during the past six months, has left a trail of dead and injured, and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' damage. The terrorists belong to a militant group bent on overthrowing the government. But they will never be arrested or charged for their crimes because they have committed them away from the reach of the world's law enforcement agencies, in the virtual world known as Second Life.

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China To Use Computer Viruses As Cyberwarfare First Strike

The Defense Department reports that the People's Liberation Army is moving beyond traditional battlefields and into cyberspace.

The People's Liberation Army in China is building up its cyberwarfare capabilities, even creating malware that could attack enemy computer systems in first-strike attacks, according to a report from the Department of Defense.

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NATO says urgent need to tackle cyber attack

NATO defense ministers agreed on Thursday that fast action was needed to tackle the threat of "cyber attacks" on key Internet sites after Estonia suffered a wave of assaults on its computer networks last month.

"There was sentiment round the table that urgent work is needed to enhance the ability to protect information systems of critical importance," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a news conference at a two-day meeting in Brussels.

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The Reality of Terrorist Cyber War

Terrorist groups can use the Internet to create a brand image, market themselves, recruit followers, raise capital, identify partners and suppliers, provide training materials, and even manage operations.

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What the attacks on Estonia have taught us about online combat.

In Estonia, you can pay for your parking meter via cell phone, access free Wi-Fi at every gas station, and, as of two months ago, vote in national elections from your PC.

The small, wired country can now add another item to this list of technological achievements: It's the first government to get targeted for large-scale cyberwarfare.

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NATO Nations Send Cyber Reinforcements to Estonia

NATO nations have sent experts to Estonia to help it combat a wave of cyber-attacks this month, a spokesman for the military allies said Wednesday, but he could shed no light on who the culprits were.

“The Estonians asked NATO for two things: one was political solidarity, and they got it, and second, technical assistance, and they got that too,” the spokesman, James Appathurai, told reporters in Brussels.

He said the 26-country military alliance had sent an expert, as had the U.S. military’s European command, and that “many other nations” had sent people from their defense ministries.

The Baltic EU and NATO member began barring access to key government and some private websites three weeks ago after it came under a barrage of attacks, often from abroad.
The cyber-attacks were triggered by the Estonian authorities’ decision to remove a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn, a move that angered Russia and the large ethnic Russian minority in Estonia.

Officials, including Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, have claimed that some of the cyber-attacks came from Russian government computers, including in the office of President Vladimir Putin.
But Appathurai could not say who was responsible.

“Those attacks continue, they go up and down, but they have not stopped,” he said, adding that they “are very hard to trace in any sort of definitive way.”

Appathurai noted that Estonia — which he said was sometimes referred to as E-stonia for its highly computer literate society — was “quite capable of defending themselves.”

Source: DefenceNews.com

Cyber-thieves 'richer than drug dealers'

A major global malware epidemic is putting greater wealth into the hands of criminals than ever before, according to new research from security software vendor PC Tools.

The company's Malware Research Center has witnessed disturbing trends such as blended attacks, a proliferation of 'toxic' root-kits and a 120 per cent increase in new crime-based threats.

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