GENEVA - THE next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief warned on Tuesday as experts called for action to stamp out cyberattacks.
'The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,' Hamadoun Toure said.
'Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,' added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU's Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva. Dr Toure said countries have become 'critically dependent' on technology for commerce, finance, health care, emergency services and food distribution. 'The best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place,' he stressed.
As the Internet becomes more linked with daily lives, cyberattacks and crimes have also increased in frequency, experts said. Such attacks include the use of 'phishing' tools to get hold of passwords to commit fraud, or attempts by hackers to bring down secure networks.
Experts say that a major problem is that the current software and web infrastructure has the same weaknesses as those produced two decades ago. 'The real problem is that we're putting on the market software that is as vulnerable as it was 20 years ago,' said Cristine Hoepers, general manager at Brazilian National Computer Emergency Response Team. 'If you see the vulnerabilities that are being exploited today, they are still the same.'
She suggested that professionals needed to be trained to 'design something more resilient'. 'Universities are not teaching students to think about that. We need to change the workforce, we need to go to the universities... we need to start educating our professionals,' she said. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Tech+and+Science/Story/STIStory_439091.html
'The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,' Hamadoun Toure said.
'Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,' added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU's Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva. Dr Toure said countries have become 'critically dependent' on technology for commerce, finance, health care, emergency services and food distribution. 'The best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place,' he stressed.
As the Internet becomes more linked with daily lives, cyberattacks and crimes have also increased in frequency, experts said. Such attacks include the use of 'phishing' tools to get hold of passwords to commit fraud, or attempts by hackers to bring down secure networks.
Experts say that a major problem is that the current software and web infrastructure has the same weaknesses as those produced two decades ago. 'The real problem is that we're putting on the market software that is as vulnerable as it was 20 years ago,' said Cristine Hoepers, general manager at Brazilian National Computer Emergency Response Team. 'If you see the vulnerabilities that are being exploited today, they are still the same.'
She suggested that professionals needed to be trained to 'design something more resilient'. 'Universities are not teaching students to think about that. We need to change the workforce, we need to go to the universities... we need to start educating our professionals,' she said. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Tech+and+Science/Story/STIStory_439091.html
