During several days in early July, tens of thousands of infected computers have generated a stream of requests to web servers with dozens of governments, financial institutions and media in the United States and South Korea. No sensitive data had been stolen and methods were considered rudimentary, but this cyber attacks, after those registered in the past during international crisis (in Estonia in 2007, Georgia in 2008 for example) should motivate us for vigilance. More we are connected, more we are fragile.
The White House, Pentagon, New York Stock Exchange, Washington Post, State Department, Treasury Department in US, the South Korean Presidency, the National Assembly, the Department of Defense, major korean newspapers have been attacked. The cyber outrage were caused by so-called denial of service attacks in which floods of computers all try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server that hendles the traffic.
These attacks have had no major effects. A few hours of service interruptions in the worst case. Attacks that are closer to vandalism than to the Cyber Pearl Harbor feared by security officials. But they could be much more serious, from the collect of confidential data in an attack on critical infrastructure like power, water, pipelines, communications and means of transport increasingly interconnected through sabotage of military equipment. The Korean Times has no hesitation in brandishing the specter of another major financial crisis caused by attacks against online banks.
In Europe, the European Commissioner Viviane Reding had led, in a video message released last spring, Member States to guard against such attacks and to appoint a "Mr Cybersecurity" responsible for coordinating national defense systems. In the United States, President Obama also announced his intention to establish a military command responsible for responding to cyber attacks and conduct offensive online, a "Cyber Command" under the orders of the NSA (National Security Agency) which should be operational before this fall.
In France, a National Agency for Information Systems Security (Anssi) recently established by Decree of the Prime Minister on 7 July 2009 as a national service. It is attached to the General Secretary of National Defense.
South Korea has responded to these cyber attacks suspecting its northern neighbor and announcing the acceleration of its program to create a dedicated military command to the cyber war that was planned for 2012.
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