Advanced Security: Cyber Warfare Analysis and Prevention Strategies

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This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cyber warfare, delving into its history, the most threatening attacks, and the legal frameworks governing it. It examines significant historical events, such as the Stuxnet virus and the attacks on Estonia, highlighting the evolving sophistication of cyber threats. The report explores cyber warfare laws, including the applicability of the laws of armed conflict and the concept of self-defense in cyberspace. It also assesses the cyber capabilities of various countries, including the United States and China, detailing their strategies for defense and offense. Furthermore, the report covers the sectors most vulnerable to cyberattacks and provides insights into prevention strategies to mitigate these risks. Overall, the report offers a detailed overview of cyber warfare, from its historical roots to its current challenges and future implications.
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
History of Cyberwarfare............................................................................................................3
Most threatening attacks in near past.........................................................................................3
Cyber warfare laws....................................................................................................................4
Cyber capability of countries.....................................................................................................5
Sectors of attack.........................................................................................................................6
Prevention..................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Referencing................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Cyber warfare can be considered to be network or computer based conflict which
mainly involve attacks which are politically motivated by a nation state on another nation.
Taking into consideration the attacks the main focus point is to disrupt the activity which can
be related to organisation or states- nation with the intention of military purpose, strategic or
cyberespionage. Although the main point which can be stated putting emphasis on the term
is that the attack is mainly initiated with the purpose of disrupting a nation state which
initiated by another nation state, it can also be used to describe attacks which are done by
hacker groups or terrorist in order to furthering the goals which is related to a particular
nation [7]. When the attacks are generated by advanced persistent threats (APT) actors it
becomes very much difficult to definitively attribute the cyber-attacks which are imposed on
nation state, but this types of attacks are generally linked to a specific nation [8].
The report mainly puts direct emphasis on the terms which are related to the cyber
warfare. There are many examples which can be stated in context to the topic which are
major suspects of the attacks which are related to the cyber warfare taking into consideration
recent history. Taking into example a specific case study relating to the topic in order to
obtain in-depth knowledge related to the topic is majorly done in this report.
History of Cyberwarfare
At the beginning of the year 2006 the US air force new mission was announced in
which they pledged to “fight in space, air and cyberspace” [7]. The main recognition of the
mission was apparently related to some time: warfare will and can migrate into the concept of
the cyberspace. The basic constitution of the cyber warfare mainly consists of operation
which are related to the military by the concept of virtual means [1]. It consists of nation
states using cyberspace as a mean of attack to achieve a result which is same as compared to
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initiating attacks with the military force. This is majorly done in order to achieve certain type
of advantage over a competing nation or the reverse of protecting themselves from the attack
which is generated by another nation [9].
Like the concept of the terrorism, the warfare tends to result in property destruction
which is sometimes in a massive scale and result in injury and deaths of the individual.
Unlike the term terrorism it is supposed to be very much limited to the clashes between the
aggregation of the individual (armies). Since the activity of the warfare is mainly conducted
between nation state in order to maintain or restore the concept of external order within the
nation. It can be stated that the main focus of the cyber warfare is not the injuring or the death
of the civilians and destroying the property of the civilians [5].
Most threatening attacks in near past
The threats which are related to the cyber-attacks have eventually become much more
complex and sophisticated with the invention of the computer worm which tested the size of
the internet by Sir Rober Morris [10]. It can be stated that the cyber warfare is currently
happening in the cyber space now. The discovery of the Stuxnet which is the first cyber
weapon which was invented became a defining moment in the field of cyber warfare [6]. The
Stuxnet was mainly invented for the purpose of the mechanical undercover work. But on the
other hand the system did not take control, or the deletion part of the data instead the Stuxnets
main objectives by then was to physically annihilate a target which was military based [10].
A recent research stated that the Stuxnet had contaminated more than 60000 personal
computers around the world but most in Iran. Taking into consideration the delimitative
example was mainly to reprogram programmable logic controller (PLCs) to perform the
attack which is intended them to do. In spite the factor that the main creator of the stunt was
not properly recognized but the intend of the harm it can create could not be justified with the
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support of different states. Even though there is no supporting evident relating to the creation,
but it was mainly supposing that the creation was done by united states and Israel [27].
Another country which was mainly harmed by the issue was Estonia. The main
network of Estonia was targeted by the hackers on april 27 in the year 2007 [21]. This attack
mainly ruined for a tenure of about few weeks [19]. It was estimated that around 28
exceptional DDOS attacks was initiated with the focus of hitting the internet convection. The
internet packets expanded to around 4 million which was initially 20000 in a time period of
every second [13]. Estonia authorities immediately blamed Russia for the attack, but on the
other hand European commission and the NATO specialist could not find most evidence into
this matter. After a long tenure after the attack was initiated Estonia as of very late got the
emergency action of NATO course underway and the whole situation was made normal [26].
According to security experts a target which can be termed as complex which mainly
targeted the private information of the nations for example Iran and Israel had been revealed
which is known as Flame, which had been in operation since the year 2010 [20]. Regardless
of the concept that weather the Flame did any harm to the nation, it mainly affected the Iran’s
gas and old production on the other hand it affected the energy sector also which was mainly
due to the factor of cyber-attacks. A self-replicating virus which was named as Shamoun had
infected more than 30000 main devices which were related to the biggest oil producer and
caused major interruptions in Saudi Armco [5]. Irate monk was another very famous device
or software which was used in the concept of justifying the cyber warfare. The main concept
which was applied to it was that it gave the applications which where programming the
ingenuity on the personal computers which where embedded the hard drive firmware to gain
the execution through the master boot record. This concept was mainly created by a group
named Equation who were assumed to be the most advanced and the most sophisticated
attack groups in the world [18].
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Cyber warfare laws
It is very much important to take into consideration what the nations can do when
they are exposed to the cyber-attacks [13]. Cyber space can be stated as a new warfare and it
consist of many legal loopholes in accordance to the international regulations which are
enforced. Former NASA director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander emphasised to the members
relating to the senate of the armed service committee in the year 2010 that the concept of the
cyber warfare advancement was seen so quick that the control of the issue was beyond the
reach of anyone [24]. He further stated that there was a mismatch between the capabilities
which are technical to conduct different orations related to the attack and the laws and the
regulations which were put forward by the government. According to many countries the
mere concept of the cyber war was not very much different from the conventional factors
which are related to the war. Cyber war can be directly stated in this case to be within the
scope of the system relating to the international legal related to war [26].
There are mainly two types of recognizable methods that can be used in the concept
of the gander at war under the international law. Both the traditional branches which are
related to the war are:
The jus as bellum – This mainly governs resort to the war
The jus in bello – This mainly governs the hostility conduct [8]
These methods can be directly being applied to the cyber warfare also. Previous
experience showed that the preventing of the actions of violation before the actual event
occurs is very much crucial and beneficial that trying to fix matters after the event has
actually taken place, this concept is also very much valid in the issue of the cyber warfare. In
order to achieve the above stated factors the law of armed forces was mainly created (LOAC)
[9]. Generally, the applicability which can be related to the LOAC was to regularly relied on
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a charactering the subjectivity in contention as a war. In order to trigger the LOAC it was
very much important to recognize the conditions that could give arise to the condition of war.
After the 1949 Geneva conventions the LOAC is mainly activated by the mere presence of
the armed conflicts between the states. Even though the concept is for the armed forces it can
also act as a starting point in the issue of the cyber warfare. Using of the arm forces are only
justified when the there is a situation of self-defence and in order to maintain direct peace and
the security. The measure of self-defence which can be exercised by any nation in order to
reinforce the concept of self-defence should be immediately be informed to the security
council under any time situation [26]. The right of enforcing any self defence strategy is
given mainly to those nations if any only if a situation of threat arise or the use of threats
against the integrity of territorial or political independence is faced in case of any armed
attack. Taking into consideration cyber-attacks, it cannot be justified with the use of arm and
are not termed as armed assaults. A very much common mean of starting point in this case is
the mere analysis which is to be considered taking into account the impact it the outcomes of
an assault which is digital in nature figuring out it mainly crosses the edge of the concept of
the armed attack. Over here it can be stated that in order to include the cyber-attack into the
concept of the armed attack the violent consequence of the bomb should be produced [21].
Cyber capability of countries
Many nations have been creating the apparatus mainly for the PC work of undercover
and the assault which may include sabotage and espionage [7]. The main activity which is
related to cyber warfare are mainly military doctrine taking into consideration few countries,
on the other hand for few of the countries it is related to national security program. Different
country has different means or strategy in order to defend themselves for the threat [30].
1. United states: in the united states the first step was taken by the president in the year
2002. There were mainly four actors involved in the process besides other agencies taking
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part in it which are USCYBERCOM to plan coordinate, synchronize, integrate and
conduct the activities to direct the defence and the operation of the specific department of
defence and when directed conduct full spectrum military based cyberspace operation. In
this mainly done to enable the sections which are related to the domain, ensure US/Allied
freedom which is related to the action in the cyber space and the deny of the same to their
adversaries [8].
2. China: according to the report of the national computer network emergency response
team coordination centre of china (CNCERT or CNCERT/CC), China has the most
noticeable advanced cyber weapon relating to an advanced infrastructure. According to
the china government the aspect of the cyber warfare is a very important issue same as
when compared with any other forms of war. After the main initiation of the cyber
warfare there was a creation of information technology base which was under the general
staff department. This was mainly implemented in the year 2010. In the mid of 2014, the
first professional “blue army” unit troop was introduced by the PLA. The blue army
mainly offender the data and the network when contrasting them with conventional
military [28].
3. Russia: taking into consideration the internet, Russia is considered as the most agonized
over the risk postured by antagonistic. “The federal security service (FSB) is a federal
executive body with the main authority to directly implement the government policy in
the national security of the Russian federation”. This body mainly ensures that the
information security of the Russia and the exercising the basic functions of the federal
security services which is specified in the Russian legislation [4].
4. North Korea: according to report north Korea has more than 5000 hacker forces. In the
year 1998 a new unit was initially started that mainly concentrated on the digital warfare.
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The unit was named as unit 121 and it constantly developed in size and the ability on a
point to point basis.
Sectors of attack
The cyber warfare attack can be mainly divided into two parts according to the sectors
which the attack tends to target [9] The sectors are:
State sponsored attacks: Taking into account the perpetrators, they have never admitted
the responsibility but it can be stated that there is clear evidence that nations state actors
have been very much behind many cyber incidents. One such attack is the attack which
was on the German parliament in the year 2015, it caused widespread disruption by
mainly infecting about 20000 computers which were mainly used by the German support
staff, politician and the civil servants [14]. The attack mainly involved transmitting of the
sensitive data back to the hackers and which finally required millions of euros in order to
clean up the cost. The Russian hacktivist with the assumed links to the state of Russia
were very much responsible for launching an attack that nearly shutdown many of the
websites and the online Estonian parliament and the with it the government even. This
hack followed the Estonian government to take decision to relocate a statue
commemorating the Soviet Union in the second world war. The Russian hackers were
also blamed for the orchestrating which was very much familiar to the cyber discretion
during the Russian Georgian conflict in the year 2008. In the year 2015, the Chinese
stated hackers where involved in hacking who were accused of breaching the US office of
the personnel management’s website to merely steal the information on about 22 million
former and current government employees. On the other hand, it was proved that the
Chinese hackers stole the information related to the design of the military craft. This
incident related to barrack Obama calling the framework on the cyber arm control
“analogous” to nuclear arm treaties. This can be considered to the first step the world had
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taken towards the establishment of such a framework. The overall impact of the attack
was that it caused catastrophic security breaches which resulted in stolen information,
majorly probed the infrastructure of the countries in the western, provided economic
advantage to China, on the other hand political advantage to Russia, fuelled the north
Korean and the Iranian the need of the revenge due to the initiation of the attack and
finally fed the espionage machine of nation that majorly spy [25].
Attack on the private sectors: According to statement released as per the recent survey it
can be stated that the sector of the cyber-attack victim can also be pointed towards the
private sector. The Yahoo hack in the year 2016 was mainly sponsored hackers of the
state was mainly blamed by the company itself but on the other hand US ISP didn’t
announce the state which is to be blamed for the issue [28]. The hackers of the North
Korean government were very much responsible for the hacking issue which was done on
Sony pictures in the year 2014. This attack on the Sony pictures was mainly initiated after
the launch of the movie which was related to the leader of north Korea Kim Jong-Un. The
north Korean hackers where found to be to using different methods of hacking by the
FBI. The means that were mainly followed included encryption algorithm, code and data,
methods which could deleted the data and compromise in the section of the malware
activity [6]. In this hacking scenario the state hackers mainly used the internet protocol
(IP) address which are from the country itself. Taking into consideration the value of the
cyber-attacks which are uncaptured by different countries it can be stated that the
government of the country should sign on a common treaty on and when the cyber
weapons which are related to the cyber warfare can be used. This would directly reduce
the amount of cyber-attack which are generated by any country on another country in
order to benefit from them [10]. The law which is related to the armed conflict (LOAC)
extends to the cyberspace, on the other hand there is a confusion regarding the
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applicability of the application and its connects that can be used in order to reduce the
overall affect that it has on reducing the cyber warfare concept. One of the first nuclear
arm control agreement which is named the limited test ban treaty which is in the year
1963 did not emerge until 18 years after the Hiroshima and it was approximately five
years before the nuclear proliferation treaty which was in the year 1968. This issue nether
solved the problem which is related to the cyber warfare but on the other hand created
problem with the it. The cyber arm control on the other hand could be equally be as slow
and piecemeal even if their development is merely achieved [9].
Prevention
The cyber warfare attack basically can be considered as an attack which is generated
on the basis of the computer network. Taking precautions related to the computer security
aspect in order to deal with the different hacking t=strategy which is incorporated in different
ways. Some of the major preventions aspects that can be taken into consideration are stated
below.
Educate employees: human error can be considered to be a high proportion when relating
to the data breaches that occur in any organisation or government. Encouraging the
culture where the people are inspired and thought about the basic concepts of the internet
should be the main approach [10]
Two factor authentication: many of the attack which are related to the cyber warfare
mainly include the details and the harassing of the employee of company or the
organisation with the use of malware and steal the data [7].
Data encryption: encrypting the data in a secured manner can directly help in securing of
the data of the sure of the organisation. on the other hand, it can be used to protect the
data from security breaches and saving them from being hacked by the hackers [4].
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Shared intelligence: swapping of the experience of the threats and the methods in order to
neutralise them and the vendors which are related to the security and the industry peers
can directly assist in both cure and the prevention concept. This would directly help in
securing the data as well as prevention of the access to data that are very much important
from the point of any organisation [7].
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above report that the concept of the cyber warfare in the
near future would be more complex and sophisticated and can be a very vital role. The
precaution measures that should be enforced by different nations are taken into deep
consideration in the report. In the year 2015 the president of the united states of America
signed an executive order in a way to authorize the treasury department to the financial
sanction with regards to anyone using the concept of the cyber-attack. The term cyber-attack
can create a significant threat to the national security of any country, policy which are related
to the foreign or the economic health or the financial stability. Despite the fact that there is
apparently many confusions regarding the international legal actions which are related to the
cyber security aspect. Either in the level of individual person or in the state level hackers
should be put on trails due to the law which is super imposed in the prospective of the cyber
warfare. It is very much critical for the different states as well as the countries to take into
consideration that the cyber warfare could be playing a two-way role in some of the cases.
Taking advantage of the concepts of the internet and benefiting them can be very much
illegal from the point of view of the government who is enforcing such type of activity.
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