NATO Fears Cyberattack
Homeland security experts might be concerned about preventing missile strikes and physical terrorist attacks, but NATO’s cybersecurity chief says cyberattacks are just as big a threat.

In an article on the Security Management website, Matthew Harwood says Suleyman Anil, head of NATO’s Computer Incident Response Capability Coordination Center, told the E-Crime congress in London last week that it is virtually impossible to stop a committed cyberattack on a country’s online infrastructure.

“Cyber war can become a very effective global problem because it is low-risk, low-cost, highly effective and easily globally deployable. It is almost an ideal weapon that nobody can ignore,” Anil said at the event.

Harwood says the prospect of Internet-based warfare has come to the fore after a series of high-profile international attacks. “Last year, it emerged that a gang of hackers, believed to be from China, had infiltrated computer systems at the Pentagon and launched attacks on government networks in Britain, Germany, India and Australia,” Harwood says. “US officials, who have labeled the group Titan Rain, have accused them of operating under the auspices of officials in Beijing.”

Harwood also cites the cyber attacks in Estonia as another example of the threats, however, he points out that only one teenage Estonian has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Anil also said state resilience to cyberattacks is weak, which compounds the problem. He recommends governments devote more resources to recover from an attack and get their systems back online quickly.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/nato-fears-cyberattack