• POLITICS
  • SCIENCE
    • Astronomy
    • Physics
    • Biology
    • Geology
    • Environment
    • Medicine and Health
    • Sociology
    • Psychology
  • MOVIES & TV SHOWS
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Virtual Reality
    • Bionics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Engineering
    • Robotics
    • Space Exploration
    • Transport
    • Industry and Service
  • GADGETS
    • Mobile Devices
    • Wearables
    • Consoles
    • Hi-Tech
  • GEEK CULTURE
    • Gaming
    • Comics
    • Thingamajigs
  • MUSIC
  • SOFTWARE
    • APPS
      • Android
      • iOS
      • Windows
  • HARDWARE
  • CARS
  • REVIEWS
  • Advertise
  • Geek Reply Jobs
  • Contact Us
Geek Reply
  • HOME
  • Editorials
  • Geek Squad
  • GeekReply Jobs
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Google+

  • LinkedIn

  • RSS

Editorials

NotPetya could be the beginnings of a new kind of battlefield, Welcome to Cyber Warfare

NotPetya could be the beginnings of a new kind of battlefield, Welcome to Cyber Warfare
blank
Saul Bowden
June 29, 2017

First the WannaCry attacks rocked the world, locking up thousands of computers across the globe. Then on Tuesday the 27th of June the so-called “NotPetya” virus exploited the same vulnerabilities as the WannaCry attack and crippled infrastructure across Ukraine before sweeping across the rest of the globe to lock up essential computer systems. The marked up-tick in large, organized cyber-attacks could imply that we are looking at the beginning of a new kind of warfare; Cyber Warfare.

The attacks look criminal but they are geared more to destruction than profit

At first glance both the Wannacry and NotPetya attacks look like they are purely criminal enterprises. Both are ransomware, both lock up the target computer and demand money in order to free your data. It seems pretty cut and dry. Experts however, are beginning to think that these attacks have deeper motivations than quick profits.

In particular, a consensus is beginning to form around the idea that NotPetya was designed specifically to cause as much chaos as possible, rather than to extort companies for money. The attack itself was incredibly sophisticated but the payment collection side of things was incredibly bare-bones, almost as if it was an afterthought.  This has led experts to believe that the attacks were designed simply to cause as much chaos as possible while using the cover of ransomware to make it look like an opportunistic attack by inexperienced criminals.

Cyber Warfare

NotPetya was designed to look like ransomware – Credit Forbes

While there is no evidence yet, the same could arguably be said of the WannaCry virus. The virus made very little money but spread like rapidly, only stopped because of a poorly designed killswitch triggered by a security engineer. The virus caused a lot of damage and may well have been a probing attack to see how effective the Eternal Blue exploit and DoublePulsar backdoor were.

The overall trend has been more cyber attacks and more politically motivated attacks

There have been some major attacks recently and the general overall trend has been towards an increased number of cyber-attacks in general with a huge up-tick in the number of attacks that could be politically motivated.

A number of recent email leaks, hacks or cyber attacks have had obvious political motivations. In the United States, the DNC email debacle arguably led to the downfall of Hillary Clinton in a close fought election. The recent blockade of Qatar by the Arab Union can be traced back to a fake news allegedly planted by Russian hackers in an attempt to destabilize the region and drive Qatar into Iran’s arms. North Korea has also been linked to a series of online bank robberies, presumably in an attempt to circumvent the sanctions against the regime  and get money into the country.

Cyber-warfare

A timeline of major cyber attacks in 2016 – Symantec report 2017

This represents a major shift in the genealogy of the Cyber Criminal. While we haven’t yet (knowingly) reached the point where you have state run Cyber warfare we are definitely witnessing the beginning of state backed Cyber Warfare. Or to put it in Putin’s own words “hackers get up in the morning and read the news about what’s happening in international affairs. If they feel patriotic, they try to make what they see as a fair contribution to the struggle against those who speak ill of Russia. Is that possible? Yes, theoretically possible.” There is no evidence that the Russian government bank-rolls these individuals but those words certainly imply support.

War isn’t about men with guns battling it out, at least not really

The term Cyber Warfare seems almost wrong. After all when we think of warfare we think of guns, bombs, tanks and infantry. The thing is that war isn’t about those tanks and men and weapons, at least not really. At the end of the day warfare comes down to cold numbers. Can you supply your troops with ammunition, wages and food. Can you get your equipment from this area to that area. Can you afford to rebuild and repair damaged vehicles and kit.

If you look beyond the battles and the triumphs and defeats the aim of war has been the same throughout history. Cripple your opponent’s economy and infrastructure and their army will collapse without you firing a shot. The Spartan’s burned Athenian farms in order to starve them into a fight. Medieval towns were cut off from supplies to avoid a costly attack on the walls. In the First World War the German military was perfectly capable of continuing to fight but the German economy and civilian population was not. So, Germany capitulated, resulting in the treaty of Versailles. The concept of crippling your opponent’s economy has informed many modern insurgency movements. Destroying the morale of the civilian population and damaging the local infrastructure is what guerrilla warfare and terrorism is based on. Cyber Warfare comes from a similar ideology.

America and its NATO allies have been attempting to cripple Vladimir Putin’s administration using sanctions and it has been somewhat successful. The Russian economy suffered as a result and Putin has had to increasingly look to domestic policy in order to shore up his support. Unfortunately for NATO, the sanctions have been unsuccessful at curtailing Russian military development and are increasingly unpopular among European nations. It seems that Russia may now be developing its own methods to fight back.

Russia and others have began to realize the potential of Cyber Warfare

Russia has long been using economic warfare against its old satellite states, leveraging their control over the gas supply in order to keep them in line. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that Russia can sow chaos among its Western neighbors simply by tacitly encouraging “patriots” to target foreign governments.

Emails leaks and hacks have caused international incidents and thrown doubts upon the democratic process in the United States and potentially other countries. However the threat posed by the WannaCry and NotPetya is arguably more dire. If WannaCry was indeed a probe of the world’s cyber defenses, then NotPetya is a test of the first cyber bomb.

WannaCry header

The WannaCry attack spread across the globe

Both NotPetru and WannaCry exploited the same loophole. It was released into the wild when the NSA lost a series of exploits that they had been hoarding in order to use themselves. The WannaCry attack demonstrated just how weak our defenses were. Relatively simple pishing techniques allowed the virus to spread unchecked, in part due to the large number of Windows machines running out of date software.

NotPetru has spread far more slowly and most experts do not believe it will infect many more computers than it has already hit on Tuesday. That said, the virus devastated Ukrainian infrastructure quite effectively. This lends credence to the theory that it was designed specifically as a targeted attack designed to masquerade as ransomware to lend deniability to the attackers. If these theories are correct, then Russia or others could plausibly begin to target the infrastructure of more nations, n order to weaken their economy. In other words, Cyber Warfare.

As compelling as the theory is, it’s still just a theory

While the arguments that NotPetru was a state backed cyber attack are compelling the evidence isn’t quite there yet and honestly, we probably won’t find it. Most governments are certain that terrorist groups like Daesh and Al Queada have foreign state backers but it is nearly impossible to prove the links. The same will likely be true of these cyber attacks.

The fact is that the attacks did primarily affect Ukraine and they were clearly designed to cause damage, rather than reap material gain. On top of this Russia’s indifference to Citizen Hackers gives a lot of weight to the argument that these attacks are Russian backed. Yet, it can’t be proven.

Even if we assume that these attacks were not state backed, they have proven that cyber attacks can cause widespread damage. This will almost certainly lead to states beginning to adopt these tactics in order to further their own agenda.

Cyber Warfare is effective and we don’t have a counter

Insurgencies have had great success in defeating well armed modern militaries in recent history. Terrorism has proven almost impossible to stop. Cyber Warfare will prove to be another of these tactics that is nearly impossible for our governments to effectively counter.

It exploits weaknesses not just in software but also in people’s behavior. One of the reasons that ransomware is so effective is because it exploits people’s natural tendencies. Even the most computer savvy of us have almost been caught out by a dodgy email, imagine how easily your IT illiterate could click on a suspect email. All it takes for an attack to succeed is an IT manager to neglect an update, an office worker to click something they shouldn’t and your system is infected, which could lead to more systems being infected.

This is a nightmare for security specialists as they can make as many recommendations and guidelines as they want; but if Bob from accounting doesn’t read them then the malware will still get on the network. Cyber Warfare will be incredibly difficult to counter.

Because of how easy it is to develop and spread it is likely we are going to see more of these attacks over the coming weeks, months and years and I don’t think we will have an effective counter any time soon. You can protect yourself by making sure that you don’t click suspect emails and ensuring that you keep your software as up to date as possible but that won’t stop your bank, office or company from being attacked.

 

Post Views: 376
W3Schools
Related ItemsCyber securitycyber warfarefeaturedHackingNotPetyaPetyaRussiaWannaCry
Editorials
June 29, 2017
blank
Saul Bowden @https://twitter.com/SaulBowden

You'll find me wandering around the Science sections mostly, excitedly waving my arms around while jumping up and down about the latest science and tech news. I am also occasionally found in the gaming section, trying to convince everyone else that linux is the future of the computer gaming.

Related ItemsCyber securitycyber warfarefeaturedHackingNotPetyaPetyaRussiaWannaCry

More in Editorials

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

5 Reasons You NEED To Play The Final Fantasy VIII Remaster

Mike GuarinoSeptember 3, 2019
Read More
10 Huge Games Still Coming 2019

10 Huge Games Still Coming In 2019

Mike GuarinoAugust 1, 2019
Read More
Microsoft E3 2019

5 Most Exciting Announcements From The Xbox E3 2019 Press Conference

Mike GuarinoJune 10, 2019
Read More
Super Mario Maker 2 Switch

3 Best Switch Games Coming In June 2019

Mike GuarinoMay 30, 2019
Read More
blank

20 Most Anticipated Games We’re Expecting To Play In 2019

Christopher WheatleyDecember 28, 2018
Read More
Stranger Things tabletop RPG DnD

Tabletop RPGs: A Fun Way to Play

Andrew DoughtyDecember 12, 2018
Read More
Killjoys VRV

Killjoys: The Interesting Tale of Bounty Hunters…in Space?

Andrew DoughtyDecember 12, 2018
Read More
blank

The Growing Complexity of Lore within Games

Andrew DoughtyDecember 11, 2018
Read More
Marvel Heroes Omega

Geek is Chic

Andrew DoughtyDecember 5, 2018
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • Comments

  • blank
    The Focus of More Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Gameplay Is New Boss Fight
    GamingJanuary 11, 2023
  • blank
    What Had Little Devil Inside Done?
    GamingJanuary 11, 2023
  • blank
    The Dead Space PS5 Launch Trailer Features Isaac Clarke’s Return
    GamingJanuary 12, 2023
  • blank
    Now available on PS5, PS4, and 13 more PS Plus Extra, Premium Games
    ConsolesJanuary 17, 2023
  • blank
    iPhone 14 – 10 LEAKED Features!
    GadgetsJanuary 20, 2022
  • Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac
    Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac- It can surely save the day
    ReviewsSeptember 26, 2019
  • blank
    Producer of the Final Fantasy 7 remake claims that the narrative changes are “necessary” to keep players engaged
    ConsolesFebruary 7, 2023
  • blank
    In Company of Heroes 3, the Deutsche Afrikakorps Blitz onto the Battlefield
    GamingFebruary 7, 2023
  • blank
    Capes Attacks Turn-Based Superhero Tactics on PS5, PS4, and Xbox One
    GamingFebruary 7, 2023
  • blank
    Last of Us Due to the Super Bowl, HBO Episode 5 airs two days early
    ConsolesFebruary 7, 2023
  • blank
    Ule || TSR says:

    That is far from the intention in this article. Especially…

  • blank
    Romuska Palo Ur Laputa says:

    Most of the characters became unlikable and regressed backwards, the…

  • blank
    reversalmushroom says:

    Lauren Faust has not been part of My Little Pony…

  • blank
    reversalmushroom says:

    Like what?

Geek Reply

Greetings techies! We are Geek Reply, a website whose main goal is to bring you all the latest news and updates from within the industry and beyond. What can you expect to find here?

Professional journalism coupled with expository writing for the most part, but we also give our honest opinion or throw in a pinch of humor for good measure when we deem it necessary. Our team is comprised of enthusiasts from across a wide variety of fields ranging from smartphone junkies to camera nerds, and everything in between. But perhaps you were looking for your daily dose of science news or hoping to read about the latest apps. If that’s the case, don’t worry, you came to the right place.

GeekReply Secured with GeekReply Scured
Nintendo Switch GeekReply

Copyright © 2022 GeekReply - Webdesign & Marketing - iPublicitate

Don’t Worry, the Bitcoin Bubble Hasn’t Burst, Not Yet Anyway.
Halo Lost Its Magic And It Isn’t Coming Back