The cyber cold war

At Times Online:

Today’s report, commissioned by McAfee, one of the largest security firms, identifies China as the country most active in internet-enabled spying operations and attacks but says 120 other countries are using the same techniques.

Defence departments across the globe are already rewriting manuals for a future of digital warfare. The US alone has recorded 37,000 attempted breaches of government and private systems in 2007 , and a new unit at the US Air Force, staffed by 40,000 people, has been set up to prepare for 'cyber-war'.

On Tuesday, Andrew Palowitch, a senior adviser to the Pentagon, said that military officials had conceded that attacks had reduced the US military’s operational capability.

NATO said that all 26 of its member countries have been targeted by some form of cyber-attack, and that the threat posed to national infrastructure was now so serious that more than 10 of its own agencies were working to protect against further incidents.

Officials were reluctant to point the finger at individual Governments, but said "state parties" were suspected.

"The definition of security is changing," a NATO official said. "National infrastructure is critical - politically, economically and commercially, and now that we know these kinds of attacks are happening, there is an increasingly push to give the issue a higher profile on the political level."

The UK Government has been criticised for not paying sufficient attention to computer-based threats since merging the National Hi Tech Crime Unit with the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

James Brokenshire, MP, the Conservatives' spokesman on e-crime, said: "The Government remains in denial over the seriousness of the situation. Specific funding for computer crime teams was cut off by the Home Office earlier this year, and the Government’s latest crime law doesn’t even define computer misuse offences as serious, when salmon poaching apparently is."

So busy has the "UK Government" been in turning their people into cattle to be herded that they can't see where the real threats are. One could change "salmon poaching" to "banning toys that look like guns" or "outlawing knives" and it would mean the same thing.

Arrogance: 'twas ever thus.