IT chiefs warn of cyber-terrorism threat to critical infrastructure

Worries
about cyber attacks which would paralyze or disrupt the nation’s critical
infrastructure are not unique to the United States. The threat of cyber-terrorism is
growing and most countries are vulnerable to attacks that can shut down
critical infrastructure, global experts told a conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. “The hard
reality is that (information technology) has become a tool for cybercrime and
cyberterrorism,” said Hamadoun Toure from the UN International
Telecommunications Union. “Cybersecurity must be the cornerstone of every
aspect of keeping ourselves, our countries and our world safe,” he told
the conference, which the Malaysian hosts are billing as the first on
cyber-terrorism and security. Toure dismissed as a dangerous myth the idea that
events in the virtual world have only a limited impact on the physical world,
saying that technology has “changed the dynamics of terrorism.” Small
groups or even individuals are capable of gaining control of millions of
computers “which can be used, for instance, to launch denial-of-service
attacks on a nation’s critical infrastructure,” he said.

Malaysia said it was launching a global
center to combat cyberterrorism which will provide an emergency response to
high-tech attacks on economies and trading systems around the world. Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the center, which is expected to be built
by the end of the year at the nation’s IT hub of Cyberjaya, south of Kuala Lumpur, will be funded by governments
and the private sector. “Every aspect of our daily lives, from
communications, public utilities, financial networks to national defence… are
highly dependent on information and communications technology to
function,” he told the conference. Abdullah said the threat of
cyber-terrorism could no longer be ignored by governments, especially in the
most “wired” parts of the world. “The extent of harm and damage
that these cyber-threats can pose to our societies and nations should never be
underestimated. Any vulnerability can easily be exploited to bring about truly
catastrophic consequences,” he said.

Eugene
Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Russia-based antivirus experts Kaspersky Lab,
said the number of cyber-criminals had leapt more than tenfold since last year.
“This means the Internet environment is getting more dangerous… there’s
nothing to stop them,” he said. David Thompson, chief information officer
of antivirus systems manufacturer Symantec, said that the risk of
cyber-terrorism grew as nations became more developed. “Most countries are
vulnerable to cyber terrorism, it’s just that some are more prepared than
others,” he said.