Ever more numerous and sophisticated, cyber attacks have become a major international
concern. In June the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence held its third
conference on cyber conflicts at Tallinn in Estonia. 380 IT experts and researchers exchanged
views on these new threats liable to seriously damage information systems that are vital
for our countries. The cyber conflict concept was the nub of discussion.
“Cyber conflict is essentially a very broad term that includes both cyberterrorism, cyberwar
and even cybercrime.
“We have different kinds of cyber conflicts but in reality we are still learning from
it because we are now trying to define what really is a cyber conflict”
It was not by chance that the conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia. This is the home
of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence set up after the 2007 cyber
attacks. At that time, over a few hours internet attacks hit government sites, political parties,
national media, banks and even emergency services, paralysing them. This nation-wide attack was
a world first.
“In 2007, most people even didn't understand what a cyber attack could be. In 2010 November
in Lisbon, NATO put cyber defence at the very centre of the new strategic concept. So, we've
seen a massive change in understanding on a part of NATO and NATO allies regarding the
importance of cyber and I think that this is far more important than anything else”
In Estonia, 98% of bank transactions are electronic and 92,5% of income tax declarations are submitted
directly on the internet. So Estonia needs an effective defence. And others do too, for
internet attacks are multiplying. Private firms are targeted as public institutions.
In 2010, Stuxnet, a new kind of computer virus, gained world attention by infecting 30,000
computers in Iran, including systems controlling the industrial centrifuges used for the Iranian
nuclear programme, in principle not connected to the internet. For scientists, Stuxnet shows
we are only a step away from cyber conflict.
“Actually it is the first cyber weapon in history and let me quickly define what I refer
to as a cyber weapon. That's a software artefact that is designed to be deployed in cyber conflict
to do external damage, so, to destruct systems or to disrupt operations”
So the first thing for states is to protect their digital infrastructures from hackers.
International cooperation seems essential for that.
“Many times, hackers know that the best thing to do to hide in the internet is to
attack through countries with which the target has poor diplomatic relations or poor law
enforcement cooperation. So, if I am an American hacker and I want to target an American bank
then I just route my attack through countries, maybe three countries, with which I know my
government doesn't have good relations, and I have instant anonymity on the web. And this
is a real challenge, so what this means is that in the future there has to be some kind
of international effort”
“I think that NATO can play a great role because an individual cooperation at a global
level is too much to hope for. We need to do it at a state-by-state level, and a group
of states like NATO cooperating first can lead us to best practices which then can be
used worldwide”
At the Lisbon summit in November 2010, furthermore, NATO agreed to improve its cyber defence capabilities
so that it can better prevent, detect and respond to cyber attacks.
“In my prospective, the most important thing that NATO is doing now is a significant improvement
to its cyber defence to a major acquisition project which is starting very shortly and
that's in the order of over 25 million euros to improve NATO's overall cyber defence capabilities.
This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012 and it follows from the
Lisbon summit declaration”.
The conference took place at the same time as the NATO ministerials, when the Alliance
adopted the new cyber defence policy and a plan of action. The purpose is to define exactly
which systems NATO wishes to protect and what resources are needed to do so.
Laetitia Chadenat for Natochannel in Tallinn