Putting aside diplomacy, the United States set about preparing a global cyber war on the Internet. So, the Pentagon announced several tenders for the purchase of a variety of virus programs to destroy the computer centers of a potential enemy. And the famous Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has started to create an interactive map of the world network with the military infrastructure of enemy cyber objects.
The first round of the cyber weapons race
For a long time, Washington politicians stubbornly denied the development of global cyber bombs capable of exploding virtual space in the course of preemptive strikes against an imaginary enemy.
At the same time, Pentagon officials widely advertised a "defense cyber strategy", which boils down only to "adequate responses" in the field of Internet technologies. Recently, however, the US Congress unexpectedly opened up generous funding for the development of a massive cyber attack.
Air Force Command was the first to react with the Cyberspace Capabilities program with an initial budget of over $ 10 million. It declares the goals of "destroying, weakening, disrupting, misleading, distorting and seizing the enemy's computer networks and command centers, establishing control over cyberspace by infecting and hacking operating systems, servers and other network devices."
No more than a year is allotted for the development and implementation of such malicious software, which indicates that there is a solid backlog.
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The second to enter the cyber arms race was the agency DARPA, which developed "Plan X" with funding of $ 110 million. With the help of this "cyber mission", the Pentagon is going to analyze the level of protection of "alien" cyber centers, creating a unique map of the "digital battlefield". Here, objects of the enemy's military infrastructure, the degree of their security and the "cyber bombs" laid by the Pentagon hackers will be presented online.
The United States in every possible way conceals information about previous cyberattacks on objects of other countries, although it is well known that the Stuxnet virus, which destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges, was created in secret Pentagon laboratories together with Israel.
Russia, having no military cyber units, insists on banning the development and use of cyber weapons. In the comments of the Russian Foreign Ministry, this was unambiguously called "the first round of the cyber arms race" with unpredictable consequences.
Cybercrime - hackers, spies and thieves
When justifying a new strategy for offensive warfare in cyberspace, NATO experts most often refer to Chinese hackers hunting for the secrets of the military-industrial complex, Asian cybercriminals and anonymous cyberterrorists.
At the same time, urban legends are cited about targeted attacks on the banking and stock exchange systems in order to cause a catastrophic global financial crisis.
Mythical Russian hackers allegedly break into the systems of oil and gas transnational monopolies, gaining access to industrial control systems and infecting them with powerful viruses. At the same time, mysterious cyber terrorists, on the instructions of their governments, not only steal valuable data, but also disable the high-tech servers of leading American corporations.
In fact, such unproven cases are rare, and cybercrime is international, and hackers are just trying to steal money from bank depositors and credit card holders for purely personal interests. Most likely, competing firms themselves are engaged in full-scale commercial espionage.
The myths of devastating foreign viruses that cripple the engineering operating systems of banks and plunge the American economy into chaos are very reminiscent of Iraq's false accusations of weapons of mass destruction. After all, everyone is well aware that the most formidable "worms" and "Trojans" start from California's Silicon Valley …
For example, an investigation into attempts to hack the security systems of retail giants Target and Neiman Marcus has clearly shown that this is the business of their competitors, and not at all mysterious "Asian hackers".
Information battles
Criticizing and threatening other countries, the United States itself, for any reason, carries out all kinds of cyberattacks against opponents and spies on its fellow citizens on a large scale under the PRISM program developed by the National Security Agency (NSA).
The NSA has the ability to control the work of such major Internet corporations as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft, in addition to many lesser companies.
Meanwhile, virtual cyberwarfare on the World Wide Web is gradually turning into a gold mine for the military of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Under the cover of far-fetched cybersecurity threats to the United States and NATO, Pentagon strategists are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in all kinds of projects, Internet missions and large-scale exercises. At the same time, the tasks of repelling cyberattacks on computer networks, key infrastructure of state institutions, as well as prompt retaliatory strikes and methods of misinforming the enemy are being worked out.
However, documents declassified by former NSA and CIA analyst Edward Snowden show that, under the guise of mass hysteria about Chinese, Russian and North Korean "military hackers", the United States is actually launching an unprecedented eavesdropping and spying campaign.
Special programs open "eyes and ears" in every American home with an Internet connection. Moreover, this is happening overseas, with such North Atlantic allies as France and Germany.
For example, for a number of years, the US special services even tapped the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And although the German Foreign Ministry forced the CIA resident in Berlin to leave the country, experts believe that all the roots of US electronic espionage have been completely preserved intact.
A few years ago, the outstanding master of political detective Dan Brown clearly showed in his novel Digital Fortress what the creation of a "super-deep system of active cyber defense" can lead to. Undoubtedly, such plans dramatically increase the risk of a "global cyber war" with poorly predictable consequences. After all, as the head of French cyber defense, Rear Admiral Arnaud Coustiyer, bluntly stated, "neutralizing the radar with a computer is much better than doing the same with a rocket."
Cyber surfing on global waves of cataclysms
Among the critical scenarios of the death of the global Internet network considered by experts, the first place is taken not by artificial man-made disasters, but by natural phenomena such as anomalous solar activity.
For example, a series of powerful solar flares can end rather sadly for satellite communication and positioning systems.
This, in turn, will lead to global disruptions in the work of Internet providers and other nodal elements of the World Wide Web. The control systems of the most important industrial facilities and structures will lose communication, and electrical substations will stop working …
Of course, electronic terrorists and their armed associates can try to take advantage of such circumstances.
Such a situation is fraught with unpredictable development of events, up to the atomic apocalypse with “doomsday” battles between the nuclear powers. All of this is reminiscent of the plot of Tom Clancy's bestseller All the Fears of the World.
Particularly dangerous is the fact that much of the electronic systems are under private control, which can easily be seized by cyber terrorists. Therefore, the creation of only one cyber command of Washington and Brussels is in any case clearly not enough. To ensure an acceptable level of cybersecurity, you will also need a "cyber police" with a "cyber-FBI", as well as a "cyber-NSA" with a "cyber-CIA".
However, this does not guarantee victory over e-crime, because it will still be necessary to conduct explanatory work among Internet users and improve their level of computer literacy. Only then will millions of visitors to cyberspace be able to quickly identify traces of criminal electronic communities and report this to the "cyber police".
Digital weapons of the present and future
How formidable digital weapons are becoming is reminiscent of the tumultuous debate in the US Senate. They discussed whether the president should also be handed the “network shutdown button” along with the “atomic case”. Fortunately, common sense prevailed here, in the opinion of most American senators, "such a medicine can turn out to be much worse than a disease."
Recently, a former NSA officer, Edward Snowden, released information on the sinister designs of the American intelligence services. According to him, the new US cyber strategy includes the creation of "state terrorists" - teams of military hackers ready at the right time to begin the destruction of computerized terminals of the enemy's vital infrastructure, including electricity and water supplies, banks, stock exchanges and airports.
In addition, a top-secret NSA department installs malware on exported computers. At the same time, the US intelligence services are massively placing spyware on computers, hard drives and routers from leading IT companies such as Cisco, Dell, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung and Huawei.
Well, do not forget about the prophecy of James Cameron, who predicted in his blockbuster "The Terminator" the exit from the control of "Skynet" - a monstrous military cybermind. However, this is a completely different story.
Oleg FAYG