Rogue NSA sysadmin Edward Snowden says his former employer has developed software that will automatically attack foreign computers deemed to be a threat –without checking in with a human first.This only scratches the surface. If the media is reporting this then you be assured that at a technical level it goes far deeper.
While I do not have specific facts to back that up what I do have is a ton of experience. I know that throughout my career I have seen many things that have been downplayed for the people who had to receive the news. This is done for a few reasons. Most people don't understand the technology they are using beyond the user interface. I still see people confuse hard drives with memory. Most people don't want to know how the technology works. Cell phones and personal computers are as mainstay as the television. If I ask 10 people how a television works I am lucky if 1 can tell me. Most people do not have the capacity to learn about computers. Knowing how a computer works requires logic and math skills. The large part of the population lacks math skills beyond pre-algebra. That being said it takes a lot of dedication and education to become good with computers.
I personally think Snowden took a huge bullet for America and he is indeed a hero for doing so. I have for a very long time known that the information on a computer is completely accessible to the government if they wanted it. Most people in IT will share this same sentiment too.
So why the concern over this particular article you ask? Simple they are reporting about an impending cyberwar that is already happening. The reasons most people don't notice is I already talked about. Let's take a quick look at just Wikipedia:
Three heavy hitters there and these programs already exist and are currently operating. Everyone hears about China and Russian hackers however your focus should include the Unites States. The US culture has been feeding this machine at an alarming rate. Cell phones are the biggest concern. While most people have access to the internet we as Americans have taken this a step further to include our children. The government wants you to have a cell phone because there is no easier way to track you than your cell phone. Claims that "all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings" may have applied in 1985 with land lines but this expansion into cell phones is unnecessary. I know I personally grew up without a cell phone.
So how does all this play into Cyberwarfare? Freely available cell phones and internet access makes it way too easy. Large companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter all have backup locations where your data is kept. While the production server may be impossible to hack chances are the backup data is easy to get at. Companies often leave the front door open to their data. I recently heard about an organization who has a credit card payment gateway in the basement of their office building. The basement! There is no secure facility involved here and this is your credit card data. Everyone looks at high value targets like Google, Facebook as the places to get your personal information. Fact is your personal information is stored without your knowledge in locations that would scare you.
Cyberwarfare and in particular the article at The Register reveals a scary truth. Bots (not humans) are out there capturing your data. What happens when the bot gets the information wrong or a bug makes you out to be a terrorist instead of an activist. When the human reviews this data they are not going to question the software that captured it. Bots attacking targets is just as dangerous. Misinformation could easily attack your company website without anyone knowing. Bots could also attack foreign countries and cause escalation of wars without the government involved at all. What would happen if this bot suddenly started attacking Russia right after the President released a statement condemning Russia's actions in the Ukraine. Matthew Broderick 1983 portrayed a character who was simply playing a game but the W.O.P.R. (Whopper) took control and nearly started a war. The WOPR while fictional at the time is becoming very real today.
We have opened the pandora's box on this and it will never get closed. The governments of the world will continue to spy on electronic data even if we pass laws prohibiting it. People will continue to use cell phones and computers knowing they are being monitored. This is a hard pill for people to swallow however the truth is that we need to just start accepting it. We should be focusing our efforts on making sure we have legal rights to prevent the government misusing the data they already have. It is more important right now to know you have rights and that the fourth amendment applies to your personal data. This is far more important because once we have these laws in place even if the government has your data, they can't use it in court. The cyberwarfare will continue but at least we will have some common rules of engagement domestically.
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