Ciberguerra (Continuación)

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

It's been a busy few days in the world of cybercrime.

Late last week, we learned that cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and overseas police agencies led to the dissection of the amorphous network behind Blackshades -- the tool that allows hackers to remotely access an unwitting user's computer to steal sensitive files, log passwords, and capture webcam images.

Law enforcement authorities from the U.S. to Germany to the Netherlands appeared on the doorsteps of suspected hackers with links to the malicious software, eventually arresting 90 people and gathering hoards of evidence along the way.

Then, on Monday, U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

Ukrainian security officials are complaining that unknown attackers are interfering with the mobile phone services of members of Ukraine's parliament, making difficult political decisions about what to do about Russia's incursion last week into Crimea that much harder.

The head of Ukraine's security service said on Tuesday, "I confirm that an IP-telephonic attack is underway on mobile phones of members of Ukrainian parliament for the second day in row".

This is reminiscent of the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Georgia that preceded Russia's invasion of the country in August 2008. The attacks shut down several websites of Georgia's government including the president's.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Cuando el 1 de enero de 1994 el autodenominado Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) inició su insurrección en varios municipios del Estado mexicano de Chiapas, casi todo el mundo pensó en una revuelta campesina. Pero en realidad también comenzaba uno de los primeros “conflictos en red” en la historia del activismo.¿Qué es lo que realmente les hace ser precursores de las nuevas protestas que están recorriendo el planeta? ¿Qué paralelismos existen entre la lucha zapatista y las recientes reivindicaciones en la Red en Brasil o España?

Los zapatistas y sus simpatizantes anticiparon formas de acción y estrategias que hoy son clave en las movilizaciones como la Primavera Árabe o el 15M.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden MundialInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Hasta hace poco, la seguridad informática interesaba principalmente a los frikis informáticos y a los tipos aficionados a la intriga y el misterio. Los creadores de Internet, parte de una pequeña y cerrada comunidad, se sentían muy cómodos con un sistema abierto en el que la seguridad no fuera una preocupación primordial. Pero con los cerca de tres billones de personas que hacen uso de la web hoy en día, esa misma apertura se ha convertido en una grave vulnerabilidad y, de hecho, está poniendo en peligro las grandes oportunidades económicas que Internet ha abierto al mundo.

Un ciberataque puede adoptar una variedad de formas, desde las simples pruebas de sondeo a la desfiguración de sitios web, ataques de denegación de servicio, espionaje y destrucción de datos.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times website experienced wide outage for several hours. Who has the nerve and ability to take down one of the most iconic newspapers in the world?

The Syrian Electronic Army, which is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, takes responsibility for the hack. This is not the first time the Syrian Electronic Army has attacked news organizations. The Washington Post, AP and others have been targeted in recent months as well.

If the New York Times saw Syrian activists spray-painting slogans on its building, it could summon the minions of the law to detain them.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

No sé con qué armas se luchará en la Tercera Guerra Mundial, pero en la Cuarta se peleará con palos y piedras. Cuando Albert Einstein hizo esta afirmación, efectivamente era difícil predecir las armas que se usarían en la próxima guerra mundial, pero estaba convencido de que su poder destructivo sería de una magnitud tal que, en el mejor de los casos, la humanidad retrocedería a la edad de piedra.

Son muchos hoy los que aseguran conocer ya las armas que se usarán en la tercera guerra mundial y que, de hecho, esta ya hace tiempo que ha empezado: se trata de la ciberguerra, es decir, el uso de tecnologías digitales para atacar y destruir sistemas estratégicos esenciales para nuestra forma de vida, empezando, por ejemplo, por los grandes centros de producción de energía eléctrica.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

We confront the problem of I.T. weaponry and national security today with the same uncertainty that we brought to nuclear weapons during the early years of the Cold War.

We’re aware something dangerous is in our hands; we are less certain what to do about it. And while the very newness of the field means discussion now is necessarily tentative, one of the lessons of today’s technology is that newness creates the possibility for fast progress.

Such a possibility exists in discussions this week between U.S. and Chinese representatives in Washington, the first ever working-level cybersecurity engagement between the two nations.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial,

“We will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same.”

— Barack Obama, Prague, April 2009

President Obama is expected to unveil a new nuclear policy initiative this week in Berlin. Whether he can make good on his first-term commitments to end outdated Cold War nuclear policies may depend on a firm presidential directive to the Pentagon rejecting any new missions for nuclear weapons — in particular, their use in response to cyberattacks.

The Pentagon’s Defense Science Board concluded this year that China and Russia could develop capabilities to launch an “existential cyber attack” against the United States — that is, an attack causing sufficient damage that our government would lose control of the country.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

As Barack Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet in California next week, America’s relations with China are feeling increasingly like the cold war — especially when it comes to cybersecurity.

With the two countries accusing each other of breaking the old rules of the game, a new breed of “cyberhawks” on both sides are arguing for cold-war-like escalation that could turn low-level cyberconflict into total war.

But treating today’s Beijing like Brezhnev’s Moscow distorts the nature of the threat and how Washington should respond to it.

In confronting today’s cyberbattles, the United States should think less about Soviets and more about pirates.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

I am often asked what keeps me awake at night after nearly 40 years as a Navy officer, including four years as supreme allied commander for global operations at NATO. There is no shortage of frightening issues: Iran, North Korea, the insurgency in Afghanistan, civil war in Syria , cyberthreats , chemical weapons, terrorism.

But my one-word answer may surprise: convergence.

Convergence may be thought of as the dark side of globalization. It is the merger of a wide variety of mobile human activities, each of which is individually dangerous and whose sum represents a far greater threat.

The most obvious example of this kind of convergence is narco-terrorism.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

North Korea recently launched a cyber attack on South Korean TV stations and banks. Iran carried out a cyber campaign against U.S. banking sites. The U.S. and Israel released malware that disabled Iranian nuclear centrifuges.

Or did they?

There's no doubt someone did all these things, and there are reasons to believe that those suspected are responsible. But because of the way the Internet is designed and the poor general state of computer security, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint an attack's origin. Attackers are far ahead of our ability to track them.

While a cyber attack can't reduce a city to rubble in the way bombs can, it is certainly possible to damage a nation through

cyberspace.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

For most of my teenage years, I made a hobby of hacking into some of the world’s largest government and corporate computer systems. I was “lucky” enough to be raided by the F.B.I. when I was 17 years old. After that wake-up call, I eventually started a software security company and now find myself helping to plug security holes, not exploit them.

The nature of hacking has changed, too, since I left it in the late 1990s — from a game of curiosity and occasional activism into a central tool in cybercrime and nation-state attacks.

Alongside that shift has come a loud and often misguided conversation about what to do to stop this new breed of hacking.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

The arena for military competition and conflict has expanded dangerously in the past few decades. Wars used to be waged on relatively small areas of land and sea. World War I, fought mainly in Western Europe, involved combat aircraft and military airspace for the first time.

World War II, ending in 1945, started in Europe, spread to Asia and became global in its reach and effects. This extended impact of warfare was intensified in the Cold War by nuclear weapons. Space became a frontier for potential inter-state conflict after the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite in 1957, and both the Soviet Union and the United States later tested weapons that could destroy or disable satellites used for communications and other critical purposes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Internacional

The discussion on cyberthreats has finally gone public. For years, governments have treated damage from cyberattacks as classified information, while the private sector has kept damage secret in order not to scare off customers and investors.

Recent high-profile cyberattacks such as those on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. Federal Reserve are only the tip of the iceberg. Cyberattacks, whether random or targeted, whether successful or not, have increased to the point that we are seeing a paradigm shift: We have become aware that transparency and shared knowledge can increase protection and strengthen security.

The damage resulting from malicious cyberactivities, such as theft of personal data or intellectual property, is enormous, even if mainly economic for now.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

On the night of Oct. 11, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stood inside the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, housed in a former aircraft carrier moored at a New York City pier, and let an audience of business executives in on one of the most important conversations inside the U.S. government.

He warned of a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” evoking one of the most tragic moments in American history, when Japanese bombers unleashed a devastating surprise attack on a U.S. naval base in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, killing 2,402 Americans and wounding 1,282 more. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy” as he asked Congress for a declaration of war.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

The decision by the United States and Israel to develop and then deploy the Stuxnet computer worm against an Iranian nuclear facility late in George W. Bush’s presidency marked a significant and dangerous turning point in the gradual militarization of the Internet. Washington has begun to cross the Rubicon. If it continues, contemporary warfare will change fundamentally as we move into hazardous and uncharted territory.

It is one thing to write viruses and lock them away safely for future use should circumstances dictate it. It is quite another to deploy them in peacetime. Stuxnet has effectively fired the starting gun in a new arms race that is very likely to lead to the spread of similar and still more powerful offensive cyberweaponry across the Internet.…  Seguir leyendo »

Internacional

¿Debería preocuparnos la guerra cibernética? A juzgar por el sensacionalismo de algunos titulares de los medios, debería preocuparnos mucho. Al fin y al cabo, la guerra cibernética podría hacer que las guerras se iniciaran más fácilmente y, por lo tanto, las haría más probables.

¿Por qué? En primer lugar, porque la guerra cibernética es asimétrica; al ser barata y destructiva, podría incitar a Estados más débiles a entablar conflictos con Estados más fuertes, precisamente el tipo de conflictos que antes hubieran sido evitados. En segundo lugar, puesto que los ataques cibernéticos son notoriamente difíciles de detectar, sus actores no tienen por qué temer represalias inmediatas y se comportan más agresivamente de lo habitual.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Since taking office in 2009, the Obama administration has made cybersecurity a major area of policy focus. The past year in particular has seen a dramatic expansion of governmental awareness of cyberspace as a new domain of conflict. In practice, however, this attention is still uneven. To date, it has focused largely on network protection and resiliency (particularly in the military arena) and on the threat potential of countries such as China and Russia. Awareness of what is perhaps the most urgent cybermenace to the U.S. homeland has lagged behind the times.

That threat comes from the Islamic Republic of Iran.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

Hace dos años, un fragmento de código informático defectuoso infectó el programa nuclear de Irán y destruyó muchas de las centrífugas utilizadas para enriquecer uranio. Algunos observadores declararon este aparente sabotaje como el presagio de una nueva forma de guerra, y el secretario de Defensa de Estados Unidos, Leon Panetta, advirtió a los norteamericanos sobre el peligro de un "Pearl Harbor cibernético" contra Estados Unidos. Ahora bien, ¿qué sabemos realmente sobre un ciberconflicto?

El dominio cibernético de las computadoras y las actividades electrónicas relacionadas es un entorno complejo diseñado por el hombre, y los adversarios humanos son resueltos e inteligentes. Las montañas y los océanos son difíciles de mover, pero se pueden encender y apagar porciones del ciberespacio con sólo accionar un interruptor.…  Seguir leyendo »