Period 2: Cyber War and N. Korea

Although cyber attacks are invasions of privacy on either private individuals or private corporations, its what they can steal that's dangerous. Online banking is a dangerous game for many, as it opens up a whole new world of people trying to make a mess of someone's money, and easily hacked social media accounts may turn up private information and photos. however this is on the scale of corporations and government entities having their secrets aired. If information is on a closed circuit then there is nothing to worry about, but if not then all is open to the world if a firewall doesn't do its job. some of the things Korea might be stealing are essential to their progress as a nation, such as medical, aerospace, chemical, electronic, and manufacturing information, all of these benefiting them in a way almost harmless to the rest of the world. at first. medical knowledge is okay to have, and by all means they can have it, they certainly need it. aerospace technology would be a great way for them to nuke us all, as well as electronics. chemical info would serve them well with creating an effective manufacturing industry, but both would easily hurt us by giving them the possibility to make chemical weapons and factories to make machines of death. I think we should worry about cyber attacks on a global scale, because unlike the physical on the cyber world has no boarders.

While a cyber attack may seem to appear harmless and almost science-fictional, they are very real and incredibly effective. These cyber attacks can be launched by nearly anyone which makes them even more dangerous. As U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated, “It is not clear how the Geneva Convention or international humanitarian law applies to [cyber attacks]”, meaning there is currently no way of truly policing or punishing countries which engage in these actions. This essentially opens the door for nearly any nation to use cyber attacks as a sort of proxy war tactic. North Korea is the main focus of the articles given as they are the primary aggressor in this field. Their APT37 is incredibly daunting when one considered the severity of cyber attacks; with the Reuters article mentioning how “Some NATO allies believe shutting down an enemy power plant through a cyber attack could be more effective than air strikes.” Cyber attacks, with a skilled enough operator, essentially have no target they cannot reach, unlike a missile or plane. If a country is basically able to shut down all of a country’s infrastructure without ever putting boots on the ground, then it will change the way wars are fought. They also can be carried out by virtually (pun intended) anyone as it takes only a knowledge of hacking and a computer. This allows for countries to have private contractors of sorts execute these attacks, enabling the blame to be shifted away from the governments themselves. All of the aforementioned information is what causes cyber attacks to take a certain precedence over even the most conventional forms of warfare. Personally, I fear more over my basic utilities like water and electricity being shut down by a mass cyber attack than a country physically invading our country. It is much easier and predictable to defend an invasion of a nation than it is to try and stop an electrical grid shutdown. So yes, cyber crimes and attacks are the future of warfare and in our current state, there is no true way to completely protect against them.

What is the next step in combating this harsh reality of war? Is there any foolproof way to really stop it?

At first, reading about this topic, I wasn't sure that it was actually something we should be concerned with. After all, the internet is a black hole, hacking happens all the time. However, after reading the first article from The Atlantic, I realized how dangerous this could actually get. The cyber attack on this medical program rendered many hospitals useless, and without technology, the medical field would suffer greatly. If this attack, supposedly done by North Korea, could do something so harmful worldwide in just a few hours, imagine the damage that could be done in the upcoming months or years. The attackers could gain access to so much information and tons of ideas. They could easily infiltrate systems and learn everything about a country and its government in minutes. As always, the question arises about whether or not the US should be concerned if this turns into a worldwide attack. I believe we should try and do whatever we can to stop these cyber attacks. However, as mentioned in The Guardian article, South Korea was already receiving attacks from North Korea. "We have been tracking their (North Korea) actions for some time, gathering clues from incidents mainly focused in South Korea. North Korea is an increasingly aggressive actor willing to leverage a variety of tools against their neighbours and the world", meaning that they will pretty much attack whoever they want, whenever they want to try and "one up" them by learning all of their secrets. Its hard to pinpoint exactly who is doing these attacks, making it almost impossible to stop the attacks or prevent them in the future.

Why do you think other countries are not trying to fight back against North Korea? Is it a morality thing or is it simply because they are not as advanced?

In today’s society people are always on their phones, computers, or any type of technology. Technology is starting to take over the world allowing there to be way more aways for countries to attack each other. Cyberattacks are the most recent way to attack other countries without any killing involved just important information being being stolen and North korea is a threat not to just the US but to the other countries around because they have been caught trying to hack systems multiple times. According to David E. Graham he said “While a victim state might ultimately succeed in tracing a cyber attack to a specific server in another state, this can be an exceptionally time consuming process, and, even then, it may be impossible to definitively identify the entity or individual directing the attack.” So he is saying that cyberattacks are dangerous because a state or country to hack another place and they wouldn’t know who did it because it’s a time consuming process to find the attacker even then there odds aren’t that good. The US has some worries about North Korea because they are basically our rivals but they should also be worried about he people who they least expect it to be because those are the ones who do the most damage.

Knowing that the chances of a state or country finding the place who attacked them in time consuming and very low should country even bother try looking for them or patching the mistake in their system? Why?

Cyber warfare is a type of war that needs to be taken more seriously. With no set in stone way to deal with cyber attacks, countries like North Korea can see this as a weakness and capitalize. Not knowing how a country will respond, they could take the risk of commiting the crime anyways, leaving the victim in all types of disarray. One thing that makes cyber attack so dangerous is that most people and businesses rely on the internet to get things done. A cyber attack would cause a big time ripple effect on a hospital. These type of attacks may cause hospitals to cancel procedures and appointments according The Atlantic article. Not only is this bad business for the hospital, but it is bad for the locals as well. If there was a massive accident, where would the people turn. Events like this can throw a society into chaos. Another thing that makes cyber attacks so dangerous is with more and more people going with the online wallet. What are people supposed to do if they get everything from their accounted wiped because of a cyber attack. In most cases, the attack will be untraceable, and there is nothing set into place on how the government would react in situations like these. We, as the United States, should put more focus of our already huge military budget into cyber warfare. Cyberattacks at home as well as abroad are a huge concern to the United States. If a massive cyber attack were to hit one major European country, it is hard to tell the ripple effect it would have on the world. A country going dark like they would in a cyber attack would have a detrimental effect on the global economy. With America and Europe so closely tied, our markets suffer when their markets suffer and vise versa. With that being said, the United States as a leading world power should encourage more countries getting up to speed when it comes to cyber warfare.
Should all countries come to a collective agreement on how to respond to cyber attacks, or should it be on a country to country basis?

Cyber attacks can be detrimental and many people overlook the extremity of them. If you think about it, the whole world relies on technology. Therefore, without it, many things wouldn’t be able to function. I think once North Korea finds out just how powerful they can be and the damage they can do through technology, they can definitely be a huge threat. Most people probably hold a little fear in regards to North Korea, because they know North Korea is capable of more than what we know, they just haven’t gave us a taste of what they have prepared yet. Adrienne LaFrance, editor of The Atlantic , provides an example of the effects of a cyber attack which locked the computers of thousands and demanded money in exchange for access. This cyber attack was placed on major corporations like FedEx, hospitals, and even pharmacies. Cutting off internet access for places such as those would be a major issue and cause many problems. Deputy editor David Taylor, states that North Korea’s cyber operation is said to be targeting Japan, Vietnam and the Middle East and is attempting to steal secrets from companies and organizations involved in the chemical, electronics, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive and healthcare industries (Taylor). This information poses many questions.North Korea’s cyber-army is becoming stronger, and because of most of the world relying on technology, hacking would be an excellent way for North Korea to take advantage of other territories.

What will North Korea do with the information they steal? What are North Korea’s true intentions in regards to strengthening their cyber-army? Do you think North Korea will take advantage of their advanced hacking skills to steal information to use as a weapon against other countries? Who is in North Korea’s line of fire?