Even though they did not cause destruction anywhere near on the scale of Hiroshima it does not mean they went unnoticed or might have lesser significance. In fact, some critics say that cyber attacks should be treated as WMD.
The announcement by Robert Work, US Deputy Secretary of Defense in April 2016 was meant to draw the world’s attention to the fact that United States deployed an offensive cyber capability for the first time “We are dropping cyberbombs. We have never done that before.”
Cyber attacks certainly have happened in the past but no state actor would have owned up to it explicitly for a number of reasons. One of them is a fear of a covert retaliation.
Whatever the reasons behind the US admission, some experts believe the West should be ready for attempts to test its defences with ‘cyberbombs’ of non-state actors or third party states posing as non-state actors. So, are we ready to defend our National Critical Infrastructure and ensure stability of our Safety-Critical Systems in the context of Cyber Security threats?
This is the key question to be discussed at the 11th Safety Systems and Cyber Security conference run on 11-13th October where the IET also launches a co-located seminar on Cyber Security in Defence. According to Prof. Chris Johnson, a leading British academic who will be speaking at the event in October, ‘we cannot (yet) insure the Cyber-Security of Safety-Critical Systems’. He goes on to explain why in detail here.
Indeed, cyber attacks that threaten the UK’s national security have doubled in 2015 with the UK facing up to seven serious assaults every day, GCHQ warned in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
What do you think? We want to hear from the community about your experiences and if you would like to post in the IET Cyber Security blog please get in touch via our conference website.