22 July 2009

Cyber security with no borders

Cyber attacks know no real boundaries, so that is why international cooperation needs to happen in today’s technology savvy environment, according to the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

This call to action comes after attacks against prominent government web sites in South Korea and the U.S.

“Though the attacks, which included web sites belonging to the White House, U.S. Treasury, and the Pentagon, were small in scale and low in sophistication, these attacks could have been more destructive,” said IMPACT Chairman Datuk Mohd Noor Amin.

“Web sites all over the world are constantly targeted by hackers, but increasingly, the number of critical sector web sites and systems being attacked has increased,” said Amin. “In recent years, large scale attacks on critical infrastructures have started to take place such as the cyber-attack that occurred in Estonia in 2007 that subsequently paralyzed the country’s entire critical infrastructure for almost two weeks.

“Due to the borderless and global nature of the Internet, no single country or region alone can protect itself from cyber attacks and other forms of cyber threats,” Amin said.

While no one really knows where attacks come from, the bad guys really do not think about boundaries. Other attacks occurred in the past such as a French bank reported an employee hacked into the system and the bank lost $7 million; TJ Maxx was hacked and lost about 40 million VISA and MasterCard accounts; and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s bank account was hacked.

Established in September 2008, IMPACT is a partnership between governments, industry leaders, and cyber security experts to enhance the global community’s capacity to prevent, defend, and respond to cyber threats. With its headquarters in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, the organization is the physical and operational home of ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda. This collaboration provides ITU’s 191 member states with IMPACT’s facilities and resources to address cyber-threats.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/security.