In the early days of the Internet, optimists projected that it would usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Maybe this will happen yet, but currently the net is proving to be a powerful tool in the hands of criminals and terrorists. On top of the rising number of globally based online thieves bent on stealing our identities and money, a growing cadre of state and nonstate actors are adding Internet weapons to their traditional arsenals that can be unleashed in cyber attacks.

The appropriation of cyber weapons emerged in the 1980's when hackers began using computer viruses and worms as platforms of protest. One of the most damaging attacks was the infection of NASA's computer network with the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers)  worm in 1989. At the time of the attack, antinuclear activists were protesting the launch of a space shuttle that carried the Galileo spacecraft—the Jupiter-bound space probe was powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator fueled with radioactive plutonium. The protestors failed to stop the launch, but it took a month to eradicate the worm from NASA's computers, costing the space agency an estimated half million dollars in wasted time and resources.

The introduction of the Web in the 1990s brought with it new forms of digital protest, including defacements of Web sites with political and social messages and denial-of-service (D-o-S) attacks that disrupt access to target sites by flooding them with useless traffic. Often, the activists claim credit for their attacks. Although many are the work of lone individuals or small teams, groups such as the New York City–based Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) sponsor massive online "Web sit-ins," during which participants flood target sites with traffic at a specified time. EDT's early actions in the late '90s were designed to support the Zapatista rebels at war with the Mexican government, but their later attacks were motivated by other causes, such as the March 2008 Web sit-in against nanotech and biotech firms, because "their science is driven by the war [in Iraq] and drives the war."

Many cyber attacks are the work of patriotic citizens who hack to defend their countries, although they are not under the command and control of their governments. Chinese hackers have been among the most active, frequently defacing Taiwanese, Japanese and U.S. Web sites—the latter, for example, in response to the accidental bombing of their embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict in 1999 and the spy plane incident in 2001. U.S. hackers retaliated against Chinese sites. Pakistani hackers have hit Israeli and Indian Web sites over the conflicts in the Middle East and Kashmir, respectively. Russian hackers have been slower to engage in political protests, but their D-o-S attacks against Estonian Web sites in 2007 over the moving of a Soviet-era war memorial showed their ability to mobilize and shut down targeted Web sites, including those of banks. Soon, every interstate conflict, however minor, may be accompanied by some form of hacker war that is beyond the control of ruling governments.

Hackers have also aligned themselves with terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and the global jihad associated with it. After U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, a group of Pakistani hackers calling themselves the al Qaeda Alliance Online started defacing U.S. government Web sites with messages praising Osama bin Laden and condemning the U.S. invasion. That group disappeared, but others have taken its place, launching cyber attacks against U.S. and other Western sites in response to such incidents as the war in Iraq, publication of the Danish cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad, and the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This "electronic jihad" is promoted on jihadist Web forums that coordinate the attacks and distribute information and software tools for hacking. The attacks have not been serious enough to warrant the label "cyber terrorism," but the potential is there for causing considerable damage against critical infrastructures such as power grids and oil and gas systems.

6 Comments

1. 1. Populistless 11:38 AM 8/18/08

   Way to equate hackers with terrorism, and play into the fearmongering "law & order" policies of the right. That's all we need, a more regulated and restricted internet.

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2. 2. aspolicastro 07:25 PM 10/2/08

   Great article capsulizing the start of cyber attacks and the current situation. I have always thought that one day hackers would be bold enough, confident enough and powerful enough to take control of one of our country’s major infrastructures such as air control, electricity or the Internet. In fact, I've written a book about such a scenario where hackers take over the cell phone network and the power grid and hold the US hostage. You can read a sample of Dark End of the Spectrum at the publisher's website at http://www.lulu.com/content/3515824.
   
   Another problem is many corporations, organizations and governments do not admit they had been hacked for fear they will become open game to other hackers. It's one of America's best kept secrets and I have written a post on my blog regarding Business Week's cover article, E-spionage at http://aspnovelist.blogspot.com/2008/04/cyber-attacks-are-like-sex-no-one-wants.html
   

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3. 3. Tom O H 06:02 PM 6/7/10

   One of the things that hugely disappoints me about this magazine is how blatantly pro-Israel it is. Plenty of articles about radical Islam, CIA torture and virtual terrorism. Not a jot about Israel testing chemical and biological weapons on Palestinian civilians, or their illegal occupation or their flagrant disregard for human rights and international law. I ve never seen anything in the 5 years I ve been subscribing to this magazine. If anyone could prove me wrong please do.

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4. 4. jtdwyer in reply to Tom O H 04:23 PM 12/9/10

   It is you who have issued the charges - it is you who must provide supporting evidence. Please provide a list or links to Scientific American articles that indicate a pro-Israeli bias, "articles about radical Islam, CIA torture and virtual terrorism."
   
   Otherwise, desist from making such radical political charges! If you cannot provide supporting evidence then your charges must be dismissed.

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5. 5. Plain-2009 09:33 PM 12/9/10

   Interesting article indeed. What is important is to keep the Internet free and secure at the same time. Our communication should be kept immune to interference to the highest possible extent. At the heart of this is the love for freedom, because there will always be someone savvy enough to disrupt a system. We should make the system the least vulnerable to the highest possible extent. A computer can crash without the intervention of a cracker and that is very disappointing.That is disappointing even for some of us that can assemble and disassemble a computer blindfolded. If electrons are not enough let's go for photons.If one path is disrupted let's make another thousand paths available, and so on.

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6. 6. barzelcommenter 09:54 PM 12/9/10

   I am curious as to the relationship which the US government (specifically DoD) maintains with the Internet. We all know that it started as a military project, under the US Department of Defense. Does the US government still maintain or have direct jurisdiction over any of the Internet's backbone infrastructure - either here or in other countries?

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