International community on fighting cyber weapon
Baku, June 2 (AZERTAC). Michael Rake of BT Group PLC, one of the world`s largest telecommunications companies, warned that world powers are being drawn into a high-tech arms race, with many already able to fight a war without firing a single shot. "I don`t think personally it`s an exaggeration to say now that basically you can bring a state to its knees without any military action whatsoever," Rake said. He said it was "critical to try to move toward some sort of cyber technology nonproliferation treaty." The suggestion drew a mixed response from cyberwarriors gathered in London for a conference on Internet security, although at least one academic praised it for highlighting the need to subject online interstate attacks to some kind of an international legal framework.
Cyberweapons and cyberwarfare have increasingly preoccupied policymakers as hacks and computer viruses grow in complexity. Recent high-profile attacks against Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have made headlines, while experts described last year`s discovery of the super-sophisticated Stuxnet virus -- thought to have been aimed at sabotaging Iran`s disputed nuclear program -- as an illustration of the havoc that malicious programs can wreak on infrastructure and industry. "You can close vital systems, energy systems, medical systems," Rake said. "The ability to have significant impact on a state is there."
The threat grows every day. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder of anti-virus software provider Kaspersky Lab ZAO, said Internet security firms were logging some 70,000 new malicious programs every 24 hours. Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said that last year alone his agency arrested more than 200 cybercriminals. How to deal with that threat was the topic of the two-day summit organized by the EastWest Institute, an international think tank which gathered hundreds of law enforcement officials, business leaders, academics and security consultants for talks in the British capital. Rake`s proposal for a nonproliferation treaty lacked detail, but it was one of several calls for some kind of an international treaty governing cyberspace. Hamadoun Toure, head of the United Nations telecommunications agency, said that "we all know that the next war, if it was to take place, would take place in cyberspace." He added that the best way to win such a war was to ensure that it didn`t happen in the first place. But those working in the field were divided about the wisdom of any cybersecurity treaty.
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