Time to wake up to cyber threat say experts

AFP/Tallinn

Nato governments and the public must wake up to the threat of cyberattacks, which could paralyse a nation far more easily than conventional warfare, experts warned yesterday.

“Cybercrime and cyberespionage are topics that can’t be ignored,” said Melissa Hathaway, a former US cyber tsar, at a conference in Estonia organised by the trans-Atlantic alliance’s IT defence unit.

“Key infrastructure, including power stations, have become vulnerable due to their dependence on Internet connections,” Hathaway said.

“There is no national security in the modern world without economic security, and both companies and private citizens should also realise the depth of the problem,” she added.

Charlie Miller - a security expert who launches test assaults on IT systems - underlined that cyberwar is far easier than a conventional attack.

“It would take two years and cost less than $50mn a year to prepare a cyberattack that could paralyse the US,” Miller warned.

Such an attack could involve fewer than 600 hackers, he added.

Estonia is home to a unit known in Nato jargon as the Co-operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.

Bitter experience taught Estonia - one of the world’s most wired nations and a Nato member since 2004 - all about cyberattacks.

The Baltic state of 1.3mn people suffered an assault in 2007 that paralysed key business and government Web services for days.

Despite Estonia’s experience, people elsewhere have not woken up, said British defence ministry expert Gloria Craig.

“It’s still hard to convince the public that a cyberattack is an attack, when people don’t see a smoking gun,” Craig said.

“As of now Nato is not prepared for a global cyberattack,” she added.

US specialist Bruce Schneier, however, said the current threat should not be overplayed.

“Building tanks does not mean you fear you could be overrun by a military force right now. It pays to build tanks and it pays to prepare for cyberwar, but I don’t believe that’s a fear we should worry about right now,” Schneier said.