Nato Moves into Cyberspace
Interesting article, Nato is considering extending the defention of a millitary action to wide scale hacking such as what happened to Estonia a while back. To think that the internet could be surioiusly damaged after a kind of cyber MAD.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...s_N.htm?csp=34
NATO mulling safety against cyberattacks
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By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
BRUSSELS — NATO defense ministers are considering extending the alliance's protection into cyberspace in the wake of a devastating digital attack that nearly crippled member nation Estonia.
Defense ministers agreed "urgent work is needed to enhance the ability to protect information systems of critical importance," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said Thursday.
NATO will begin examining how it may protect its 26 member states from electronic attacks like the one in Estonia, Appathurai said during a meeting of the ministers.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a number of the other officials have backed the move. No final decision has been reached on anything beyond studying the issue.
The issue is tricky for NATO. The attacks on Estonia were launched against public cyberspace that controls banking, e-mail and other functions and not the country's military command and control system. The attacks, which began in April and peaked last month, were launched from computers in about 50 countries, NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said.
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The alliance, a product of the Cold War, is based largely on the notion that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
The cyberattacks in Estonia, a former part of the Soviet Union, followed its decision to transfer a World War II-era statue of a Soviet Union soldier from a park to a military cemetery. The move triggered riots among Estonia's ethnic Russian population.
The Estonia attacks were "sustained" and "coordinated," Appathurai said.
Estonia bills itself as one of the most advanced nations when it comes to online services. Estonians can vote online, and a large percentage of people there use the Internet for banking and other services.
NATO dispatched a team of specialists to Estonia after the attacks, but it has limited capacity to support broader cyberspace defense efforts.
NATO's capabilities are directed toward protecting the alliance's own network, said Sheena Carrigan, a NATO spokeswoman. Expanding that mission would be up to the alliance's political leadership, she said.
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Originally Posted by Leon Blum - For All Mankind
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