Navigating the Complex Landscape of Cybersecurity
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Cyber security is a complex issue that cuts across multiple domains and calls for multidimensional, multilayered initiatives and responses. It has proved a challenge for governments, because different domains are typically administered through ministries and departments. The task is made all the more difficult by the inchoate and diffuse nature of the threats and the inability to frame an adequate response in the absence of tangible perpetrators. The increasing centrality of cyberspace to human existence is exemplified by facts and figures brought out recently by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), according to which the number of Internet users had doubledin recent years. The total number of mobile Internet users in India alone is over 350 million. Users are connecting through a range of devices from the personal computer to the mobile phone, and using the Internet for a variety of purposes from communication to e-commerce, to data storage. The rise in the Internet population has meant that while the threats and vulnerabilities inherent to the Internet and cyberspace might have remained more or less the same as before, the probability of disruption has grown apace with the rise in the number of users.
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Cyber threats can be categorized, based on the perpetrators and their motives, into four groups: cyber espionage, cyber warfare, cyber terrorism, and cybercrime. Cyber attackers use numerous vulnerabilities in cyberspace to commit these acts. They exploit the weaknesses in software and hardware designs through the use of malware. DOSS attacks are used to overwhelm the targeted websites. Hacking is a common way of piercing the defences of protected computer systems and interfering with their functioning. Identity theft is also common. The scope and nature of threats and vulnerabilities is multiplying with every passing day.
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There is no agreed definition of cyber warfare, but it has been noticed that states may be attacking the information systems of other countries for espionage and for disrupting their critical infrastructure. The attacks on the websites of Estonia in 2007 and of Georgia in 2008 were widely reported. Although there is no clinching evidence of the involvement of a state in these attacks, it is generally held that in these attacks, non-state actors (e.g. hackers) may have been used by state actors. Since these cyber-attacks, the issue of cyber warfare has assumed urgency in the global media. It is almost certain that other countries will also respond by adopting similar military doctrines.
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The issue whether cyber-attacks can be termed as acts of warfare and whether international law on warfare applies to cyber warfare is being hotly debated. Multilateral discussions are veering around to debating whether there should be rules of behavior for state actors in cyberspace. The issue becomes extremely complicated, because attacks in cyberspace cannot be attributed to an identifiable person and the attacks traverse several computer systems located in multiple countries.
