User talk:Riteshgb

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Information Warfare (I-War)
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by Govindsing Bheergoonath (Ritesh)

The concept of Information.

Information has been described as a knowledge which has been gained through study, communication, and research. It is closely related to notions of control, instruction, perception and representation. Information can be an asset for various individuals as well as groups, such as corporate groups, government bodies and so on.

The concept of Warfare

Warfare is often the result of conflicts between opponents, who might be mere civilians, politicians and even terrorists. Every opponent has a specific reason to ‘attack’ his/her rival, and the benefit can vary from personal gain and satisfaction, or simply, for mere fun.

The concept of Information Warfare

Since the past decades, Information and Communication Technology has met with an exponential rise, and its increasing presence in our daily activities has completely changed the communications process. The simplest example of such a development is the exchange of information. In the past, our ancestors used pigeons to convey messages for big distances. Further improvement came with the use of letters being shipped. But nowadays, such a tiring and time consuming job has been completely improved by the use of emails. People can easily communicate with each other, send pictures and so on, via a simple electronic mail.

Moreover, this rise in technology can be considered as a mixed blessing, as it has brought its side of troubles too. Nowadays, people with bad intentions, most commonly known as hackers, are using the loopholes in the current computer systems to attack innocent people’s sensitive information, causing quite a lot of damage in terms of finance and infrastructure. Such an endeavour to cause harm to people using the latest technology, has caused a state of war between the ‘good’ people and the ‘bad’ people. Information warfare is best described as the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It may involve collection of tactical information, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the ‘enemy’ and undermining the quality of opposing force information. 

The mechanism of I-War

Nowadays, the process of only possessing information somehow has limited importance. In fact, it is the speed of obtaining, processing, and the use of that particular information which has gained much momentum, as it has become the key factor for the survival of any organisation. It is due to the high importance given to information, that it has become the primary target of competitors or opponents, in any competitive situation.

Information is now not only regarded as power, but also as a weapon at all levels, and, like any weapon, it has to be defended. Information should always be protected, and its integrity must be maintained to ensure the proper running of any organisation. Nowadays, firewalls equipped with IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) are used to protect internal resources from external prying eyes. But, is that a sufficient measure of protection? As so well quoted, if an attacker wants to have access to information in a secured system, the latter will always achieve the target, as there is no known impenetrable system.

In the corporate world, there is always a struggle for any organisation to surpass its opponent by providing the best products and services. But to be able to do so, they need to have an eye on the market, and most importantly, they need to know what their opponents are doing, what are their plans, and how to come forward with a better strategy than them.

It is in this sense that, the one possessing superior information will have the upper-hand on any competitive organisation. It is similar to the law of jungle, “The survival of the strongest”. Furthermore, there is no legal or moral aspect being respected when obtaining information. Competitors often use aggressive means, such as coercion, blackmail and so on. While the destruction of the physical infrastructure of opponents is considered as farfetched, the concept of information dominance is not. There will always be unexpected scenarios to acquire information.

Organisations are not only threatened by outsiders; potential threats can be found on the inside too. Sometimes, employees, out of frustration or mere greed, can cause damage to critical information, either by altering it, or simply destroying it. Sometimes, they even sell information, such as new product concepts, plan for the network’s infrastructure, to the highest bidder.

In such cases, every organisation needs to monitor its internal resources as well as external threats.

Common Strategies in I-War

Denying access to data consists of attacking the hardware which contains the necessary data from the attacker’s point of view. It might also involve delaying the access to data to the point it becomes useless. An example of this is, sending millions of fake requests to an e-commerce server will prevent genuine requesters from access.

Disrupting or Destroying Data involves destroying the storage medium or the data itself, such that it becomes completely irrecoverable. The blowing up of a server room is a cheeky example in this case.

Stealing Data can give insights into the workings or secrecies of the attacked organisation, thus giving the attacker a possible negotiation or criminal advantage. Such cases involve the attacker blackmailing the attacked group against the threat of selling their sensitive information to competitors.

The addition, deletion and alteration to data give a potential advantage to the attacker. This method is mostly used in financial frauds. Attackers can often alter data residing in bank databases.

Change perceptions/Context is the case when human knowledge is altered via external factors, such as state of mind, prejudices and experience. Changing the perception of the interpreter will alter the context of the situation.

The catalyst of Information Warfare

Nowadays, in terms of information technology, each society has its share of advantages and vulnerabilities. For instance, the bigger and more sophisticated a country is, the more it is susceptible to attacks. For example, the USA has the best infrastructure in terms of telecommunications, man-power and sophisticated software. These facilities are the major assets of such a super-power country. But, unfortunately, people often misuse this abundance of facilities. Companies with advanced network capabilities also have the same advantages and inconveniences.

Strategies and tactics used in Information War also vary on the social/financial situation. Developed countries are at a different level from developing ones. It has been seen that most of the malicious activities occur in developed countries, like the USA, European countries and so on. The reason behind this is their advanced infrastructure and technologies. The people residing in such countries have in their possession a vast arsenal of technology to put into malicious activities, and most ironically, these facilities were supposed to be put into good use.

Furthermore, in developing countries, such as India and even Mauritius, the vulnerability of attacks is less consequent as developed countries. The reasons behind this are the lack of vulnerable electronic infrastructure and slow bandwidth. Moreover, the companies residing in such countries are not considered as emergent ones. Thus, the attackers will not have much to gain by attacking such organisations.

But, nevertheless, there should never be a false sense of security for developing countries. Despite of having limited infrastructure, such countries possess cheap labour with education elite, and networked societies based on ‘clans’ which are difficult to penetrate.

Thus, it is important when developing I-War strategies to conceptualize an organisation both as entities and elements within a network of other organisations and elements.

Offensive and Defensive Operations

Information warfare has nowadays become a term that has exploded onto the world scene. Organisations and government bodies are losing a lot of money due to attacks upon their networks. Hackers, business competitors and other countries are repetitively attacking networks in search of thrills, competitive advantages and national secrets. Considerable amount of money and time are spent in battling these attackers; human logic in such cases is mainly focused in minimizing the damage by purchasing the newest defensive means. Many times, companies purchase hardware and software that is not necessary, simply because they do not understand their enemy and their techniques. Innovations by potential adversaries should be first recognised. In order to enact adequate defensive techniques, an organisation must know the offensive techniques.

Deception

In the corporate world, deception is defined as confusing or creating an illusion such that targeted people or organisations are convinced to believe certain information. As an example, advertising of a new soft drink, with a futuristic packaging and promotional price, will certainly compel people of trying it. Such strategies of deception form part of information warfare.

Deception is basically about changing information. If a message is manipulated and the receiver accepts the message, or, if a message has been modified and the receiver rejects it because of misinterpretation, then deception has occurred. Corrupting data and changing attitudes to produce a desired state of mind is one of the most powerful aspects of I-War.

Deception is neither good nor bad; it is just a strategy to produce a certain output. For example, it can be used to commit frauds, but also, it can be used to catch those who are committing frauds. There are 2 types of deception: hiding the real, or showing the false.

“Hiding the real” is mostly a strategy to mask non-genuine transactions. For example, some computer viruses have the ability to merge with the system without being detected. This is a perfect camouflage to go unnoticed but still doing its job efficiently.

“Showing the false” is often applicable for misdirecting or creating a new reality for any target. An example is advertising; if a soft drink company can discredit its competitor by false accusations of illegal products being used, while praising its own products with user-friendly tags.

Attacking the content, form of presentation, availability and timeliness of data can cause deception to occur.

Furthermore, there is always a motive for deception to occur. As it has been tagged as a neutral term, being neither good nor bad, deception is often seen as a profitable means for any organisation, whose motive is to protect itself and compromise a competitor. Organisational deceptions can be used to promote its image and also to gain advantage over competitors.

Deception can also be used in constructive ways. An example is the concept of honeypot. It is a trap set to detect and counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network, but is actually isolated, and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource of value to attackers. Thus, attackers are deceived into attacking set-up computers, and while they think they are collecting precious information, their locations are being searched, and once caught, sever actions can be taken against them

Preventive measures against attacks

In I-War, if an attacker wants to hit a particular system to search for information, the latter will definitely succeed in this task. The only thing that the ‘good guys’ can do is to delay the attack in order to find means to move this information to a safer place. Thus, there is no means to directly secure ourselves from attacks.

Furthermore, the reasons for hackers gaining access to sensitive information, is mostly due to human’s carelessness or complacency. Many IT personnel think that their systems are impenetrable, or completely secure. This feeling of invulnerability is due to the fact that every piece of equipment has been installed within the constraints of the company, and that it could have been achieved in no other way. The problem arises when it becomes fixed in behavioural concrete. I-War is fast moving in terms of technical possibilities. Standing still really means going backwards in this situation.

The intelligence function is always important to an organisation. Staffs must have the ability to look at situations from different perspectives. They should understand the minds of competitors, clients and criminals. It is this skill which enables a complete threat analysis to be attained.

Looking at a problem solely from the corporate point of view will lead to misjudgements. The likelihood and consequences of threats must be evaluated. Potential attackers must be appraised in terms of not only their capabilities but also their likely intentions.

Thus, intelligence gathering is the responsibility of all staffs in any organisation.

Conclusion

Information Warfare is ever-present. An organisation must be aware of the offensive threat in order to keep from becoming a causality. Companies and countries must find a way to take control of their networks to control the loss of critical information and trade secrets.

The human element continues to create the biggest threat to the security of information systems. Companies must develop sound policies and be willing to support them. They can significantly reduce the vulnerability of their systems by increasing the training provided to their users, increase their physical security, and monitor their networks, phones, and all other infrastructures to ensure that workers are following established policy.

Denial of service attacks will continue to plague our networks until regulation of the Internet takes place. Our information is so interconnected that the inability or unwillingness to take computer security seriously by a single company threatens everyone’s operational capacity. There is nothing that a company can do to combat an effective denial of service attack except to wait for its termination.

The days when viruses were a mere nuisance are over. Trojan horses and macro viruses leave our networks vulnerable and at the mercy of our adversaries. Governments must establish effective laws and prosecute the individuals who dare write, develop and execute malicious code.

Information system managers need to take network security seriously, and they must be able to calculate the appropriate level of security required to the value of the information being protected. Managers must remain aware of the ever increasing threats being developed to attack networks and should provide a defence in-depth approach in order to provide appropriate security levels.

References

- Hutchinson, B. and Warren, M. (2001) Information Warfare: Corporate attack and defence in a digital world

- Molander, R. and Riddile, S. (1996) Strategic Information warfare: A new face of war

- Cummins, D. (2000) Information warfare: Going on the offensive

--Riteshgb (talk) 17:25, 6 December 2009 (UTC)