Undeclared Cyberwar Targets Infrastructure Companies

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Author: John Duckgeischel on January 29, 2010 - 12:16 AM

Undeclared Cyberwar Targets Infrastructure Companies

Telecom, finance, transportation, petroleum, water and power companies indicate that their networks are subject to widespread attacks from foreign governments and cybercriminals. McAfee published its cyber security report which was written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The report entitled "In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyberwar," looks at seven industrial sectors in 14 different countries. The survey was conducted by U.K. research firm Vanson Bourne, Ltd., and involved interviews with 600 IT and security executives. It found general concern the security threats in the future may get even worse. The report found that cyber attacks that resemble the attack reported by Google from China are being experienced by companies across many industries.

The report shows that 54% of the executives surveyed have been subject to 'Large-scale denial of service attacks by high level adversary like organized crime, terrorists or nation-state (e.g. like in Estonia and Georgia),'" the report says. "The same proportion said they had been subject to 'stealthy infiltration' of their network by such a high-level adversary 'e.g. like GhostNet' -- a large-scale spy ring featuring individualized malware attacks that enabled hackers to infiltrate, control, and download large amounts of data from computer networks belonging to non-profits, government departments and international organizations in dozens of countries." According to an interview with InformationWeek, Stewart Baker, a CSIS distinguished visiting fellow and former secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security and an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson underscored the seriousness of the situation. "We asked people who ought to know about attacks on their infrastructure under an assurance of anonymity and what we found is that this is a very significant threat," he stated. "It really is substantial."