Cyber Scare Could Be Warning Shot

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:33:02 GMT

This week's crude and fairly ineffective attacks on U.S. and South Korean Web sites were a minor event, network experts said, but could represent a warning shot portending much more serious threats to worldwide communications and commerce on the Internet. James Lewis, a cybersecurity scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted the paradox in the attacks - that they were well-coordinated and broad in scope, but very limited in their aims. If they were the work of the North Korean government or affiliated forces, as South Korean officials suspect, said Lewis, it seems that the real purpose might have been to get the attention of foreign governments. Much like North Korea's missile and nuclear testing, this week's cyberattacks could be part of a diplomatic game aimed at extracting concessions from the United States and Western powers, he speculated.

On the other hand, any number of foreign governments, including North Korea, are capable of much more serious action that could do greater and long-term damage to Internet communications, Lewis said. Robert Beverly shrugged off the reported attacks this week as insignificant, but said that what keeps him up at night worrying is an attack on the domain name system - the computers that translate familiar words like Google into numerical Internet protocol addresses. Beverly, a network computing expert affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that a network of privately-owned computers around the world, known as root name servers, coordinate this activity.

Tech Daily Dose: Cyber Scare Could Be Warning Shot

Cyber Scare Could Be Warning Shot