Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Online security breaches becoming tool of war

Following the recent Georgia - Russia conflict that saw Russian hackers get in on the action by compromising Georgian websites, an online security expert has stated that cyber warfare may be gaining acceptance as a weapon of war.

Speculation is rife whether the cyber attacks that likened Georgia's president to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had any Russian state backing, though some reports have claimed the Russian infamous mafia was the culprit.

Reports of cyber snooping, government website breaches and cyber terrorism have made headlines in recent months, with an attack on Lithuanian government and commercial websites being the most recent.

Other hacks that have been reported include an attack on the Pentagon's unclassified e-mail system and a revelation that Indian government and commercial websites had been attacked by Chinese hackers.

According to Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence for SecureWorks, such attacks may become more commonplace in the coming years.

"I think anybody in any kind of conflict, any nation, is going to use whatever they're capable of as far as cyber-attacks or misinformation campaigns using the Internet," he said to eweek.com.

PC Tools internet security, safeguards your PC against cyber threats with proactive defence. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection