US Dim Mak point 2: Vulnerability to cyber/electronic warfare

THE United States is the most advanced information technology (IT). Practically all of its industries, telecommunication systems, key government services and defense establishments rely heavily on computers and computer networks. But this heavy dependence on computers is a double-edged sword. Advanced IT has thrust the US economy and defense establishment ahead of all other countries, but this strength has also created an Achilles’ heel that can potentially bring the superpower to its knees with a few keystrokes on a dozen or so laptops.

Other technologically advanced nations like China, Russia, Japan, Germany, and Israel are equally vulnerable to cyber warfare like the US. In a way, cyber warfare levels good hackers can also originate from technologically weak nations, and one needs only a couple of really good cyber warriors to launch a cyber attack against a target nation.

What can a full-scale cyber war look like, say, to a major country like the US? Here is an outline of a possible worst-case scenario: A swarm of cyber warriors begin hacking at America’s business, government and military establishments. America’s command, control, computer, communication, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system will be one of the prime targets. The US ballistic missile system, the anti-ballistic missile system, and the air defense system would be priority targets as well. (Just imagine US ICBMs reprogrammed by hackers to explode a few seconds upon launch!) Neutralization of these systems through cyber attacks would decapitate the entire US defense and deliver a fatal blow to its center of gravity, such as the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) computers.

A major, all-out cyber attack, however, will not be limited to attacks on strategic military offensive and defensive systems alone. The US banking system will surely come under attack. Serious attempts will be made to disrupt the stock market as well. Other vital services will be equally can be disrupted or manipulated to cause system can be manipulated in the same manner to cause train “accidents.” Pressure in oil and gas pipelines can be overloaded to cause major pipeline disasters. Dams can be made to burst, telecommunication systems to fail, faucets to run dry, power plant generators and power grids to malfunction, and nuclear power plants to experience catastrophic meltdowns.

All of these potential effects of cyber warfare can engulf the US mainland in a well-planned cyber-attack or counterattack in the event of a major confrontation between America and major powers like China or Russia. More ominous, there is no foolproof method of defending against this type of attack. A case in point is the “storm worm” that affected millions of computers worldwide. Its source code is constantly updated by its authors, which allows it to morph and adapt, giving it the ability to defeat anti-virus software thrown against it. It can lie dormant, enabling it to evade anti-virus programs searching for it, and be activated at a moment’s notice. And it allows the hacker who created and released the “worm” to control all infected computers. Computer security experts suspect that Russian hackers created and released the “storm worm” into the World Wide Web.

The “war memorial” incident in Estonia graphically illustrates the use of information warfare by Russia against an adversary. Estonia forcibly transferred a Soviet-era World War II memorial statue to a new location. This action by the Estonian gov passions. Russian response was immediate and devastating. Russian cyber warriors launched a massive distributed denial of service botnet attack against Estonia’s national information infrastructure. As reported in the Guardian of UK on May 17, 2007, this undeclared cyber war by Russia paralyzed the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks and private companies of NATOmember Estonia.

A more ominous application of this new form of warfare debilitated Georgia during 2008. Russia combined a physical military attack with information warfare against Georgia when US-trained and -equipped Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia. The result was a humiliating rout of the invading Georgian forces. This marked coordinated with a conventional attack by one nation against another.

Even now, the US is blaming Russia for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s email and leaking them to the US public that turned the tide against Clinton causing her to lose to Trump. sophistication of Russia’s cyber attack capa the results of US presidential elections.

Russian capabilities in cyber warfare is equally matched by its demonstrated capa by the USS Donald Cook incident whereby

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