Cyberwar: Has it begun?

By Govind Rammurthy

2014 was the year when flaws in the present security systems and their deployment by the various organizations were exposed. Be it the attack on JP Morgan Chase or eBay, each attack is synonymous with data-theft and lapses in IT Security Standards.

However, the recent attack on Sony stands out like a sore thumb. Not because the hackers were able to siphon of GBs of data or it has got anything to do with the fact that movie scripts or unreleased movies were illegitimately dumped on file sharing sites. The reason is the Country-wide Internet outage suffered by North Korea which was immediately after it was revealed by the American Investigation Agencies about the involvement of North Korea.

Not just once but in last few days North Korea suffered country-wide Internet outage twice.

Similar to a war wherein after the initial attack, the attacked country retaliates with force; the same pattern is seen in this incident. However, it is still unknown as of this moment the exact nature and cause of this Internet outage and is it more of a coincidence of the events that have taken place?

The attack on Sony’s infrastructure and the subsequent reaction of SONY not to opt in for a world-wide release the movie “The Interview” fearing a reprisal of attacks by the hackers, which interestingly is about North Korea, was more of a cautious approach.

However, it came as a surprise when, President Barack Obama said that Sony should not have pulled the release of  “a satirical movie” in the wake of threats from North Korea. Furthermore, President also stated, that “We will respond," while declining to elaborate. “We will respond proportionately and in a space, time and manner that we choose.”

For once, hypothetically if we assume that the country-wide internet outage experienced by North-Korea was actually in retaliation for the recent hacks against SONY, then can we term this as the first Cyber-War?

Since, most of the Internet is either directly or indirectly under the control of US and there have been reports about a proposed legislation which is being termed as the Internet Kill switch, was this a demonstration of what can be termed as the beginning of a new era in this cyberspace, and the alleged rumors about countries raising cyber-solders and cyber-armies?

In past few years, we have observed a rise in participation of governments in the world of cyber-espionage. However, nothing has ever been conclusively proved. Be it the malware to the likes of Stuxnet which was used to target Iranian Nuclear Reactors, or Operation Hangover wherein the Norwegian telecom major Telenor was hacked. In every case, researchers have fallen short of pin-pointing the exact source of attacks. However, in every case they are of the view that governments are responsible for such activities.

2014 has been a year of revelations of a different kind and hopefully the trend of revelations is carried forward in 2015 too.

The author is managing director and chief executive officer at eScan**.**