During 2007 the West was the victim of successive waves of cyberattacks. In the balance of power between victims and the supposedly guilty, a logic of ‘blocs’ reminiscent of the Cold War seems to be emerging. Should these attacks be seen as aimed at states’ sovereignty or are they the work of cybercriminals? The answer to that question will indicate the level of reaction called for.
Cybercrime, the Resort to Force and Armed Attack
The year 2007 was full of incidents which reflected turmoil in the world of information security, security in general and the national defence of the greatest nations of the world. In April, successive waves of cyberattacks targeted, and damaged, Estonia.(1) These attacks lasted several weeks and were directed at public institutions, banks and companies. They appeared to be extensions of a conflict which had broken out and deteriorated into riots between the country’s Russian and Estonian communities.
In June, the United States declared that it had been the victim of attacks against the Pentagon’s information systems. In August, it was Germany’s turn to announce that the government’s information systems had been pirated. In August and September, France claimed to have been the object of attacks against the State’s information systems, its national defence organisation speaking of a ‘serious matter’. In September and December, the United Kingdom announced that it had been the victim of large-scale attacks, affecting the systems of large firms, banks, the state security services and ministries. In October, the United States again condemned coordinated attacks against sensitive laboratories, citing Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.(2)
These are, of course, only some of the waves of attacks that affected information systems throughout the world in 2007. These events were not confined to the Western states quoted. New Zealand, for example, also announced in September that its governmental information systems had been subjected to attempts to steal information and to take control of machines. China noted that it too had suffered continual attacks. Finally, the year 2007 was not an exceptional one: wide-ranging attacks had already been recorded during previous years in various countries of the world. They have nevertheless reached a new level in the scale of effectiveness, ‘firepower’ and harmfulness. They have also reached a new level in terms of media attention, although none has yet reached such a level as to bring a state to its knees.
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