Cyber-attacks targeting government institutions in Southeast Asia has intensified in the last four years, and security experts here attribute it to possible espionage triggered by the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Cyber-espionage
is expected to further increase in the coming years as some claimant-countries
in the disputed reefs and islets in the South China Sea
may attempt to get a heads-up of plans and strategies of rival countries. This
is according Costin Raiu, director of the Global Research and Analysis Team of
the Kaspersky Lab.
“We’ve noticed an
increase in the attacks in the region in 2011 and 2012; like there was a sudden
change and there were a lot of APTs (Advanced Persistent Threat) that focused
exclusively in the region. You will not find these attacks somewhere else in
the world,” Raiu told the Manila Bulletin in an interview during the
Cybersecurity Summit sponsored by the Kaspersky Lab here.
APT, according to
Wikipedia, is a set of stealthy and continuous computer-hacking processes,
often orchestrated by human(s) targeting a specific entity.
Interestingly,
the start of the sudden increase in cyber-attacks monitored in the South China
Sea also falls on the year, sometime in April, 2011, that the Philippines and China
“There are some
specific APT groups which they only operate in the South
China Sea and they would constantly target institutions and
governments which are involved in these territorial disputes,” said Raiu.
Kaspersky Lab, a
private company involved in IT security, has been working with the
International Police in detecting cyber-attacks across the world.
“I would assume that
this is all about geopolitical influences and obtaining geopolitical
advantages. All these can be used, it’s helpful if you learn the plans of the
others opponents,” said Raiu.
But Raiu would
not say which country who is engaged in the territorial dispute has been at the
forefront of cyber-attacks. As a private company, he said they choose to stay
away from political activities of every country.
At the height of
the South China Sea territorial dispute after the 2011 Panatag Shoal incidents,
suspected hackers from China and the Philippines had engaged in cyber-attack
war, targeting not only the websites of government institutions but private
firms as well.
Such a cyberwar
was apparently meant to sabotage the webpage of the targets but security
experts here are saying that cyber-attacks sometimes go beyond sabotage as a
motive.
THE ART OF
WAR: ESPIONAGE
In his
presentation for the Cybersecurity Summit, Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and chief
executive officer of the Kaspersky Lab, said espionage is one of the three main
motivating forces in cyber-attacks aside from sabotage and to get easy money.
In the case of
the South China Sea territorial dispute, Raiu
explained that the battle to get as much information of the plans and
strategies of some claimant-countries could be motivated by the “Art of War”
philosophy that highlights the importance of spying in order to win a war.
“If you read in
the “Art of War,” it says espionage is a key factor in winning any war. If you
go to the war unprepared, you will never win,” said Raiu.
PROTRACTED
CYBERWAR
Raiu said that
the intensified cyber-attacks since 2011 may just be the start of a very long
cyber-warfare triggered by the South China Sea
territorial dispute.
“I think the
cyber warfare will be long. This will not be solved in next two, three, or five
years. This will be a long process,” he said.
http://www.mb.com.ph/cyber-attacks-in-se-asia-up-experts-cite-territorial-dispute-as-possible-reason/
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