June 19, 2018
COMMENTARY / Daniel Andrés Llonch
Cyberspace has established itself as a new domain in which the security of states and their citizens is decided. On the one hand, attacks no longer necessarily involve the employment of weapons; on the other, non-combat actions, such as certain operations to interfere in the affairs of other countries, can be particularly effective given the access to millions of people that information technologies allow.
These capabilities have contributed to a climate of growing mistrust among world powers, characterized by mutual accusations, cover-ups and stealth, since cyberspace makes it possible to hide to a large extent the origin of aggressions. This hampers the state's mission statement to protect national interests and complicates its management of individual freedoms (the tension between security and privacy).
From the West, the governments of Russia and China have frequently been singled out as sponsors of cyber-attacks aimed at damaging sensitive computer networks and stealing confidential data , both from individuals and companies, and of operations aimed at influencing world opinion. In the Chinese case, the activities of secret units under the People's Liberation Army have been pointed to; in the Russian case, organizations such as Fancy Bear are mentioned, behind which many see the Kremlin's hand directly.
Russian cyber-attacks or actions of interference in Europe and the United States are attributed to these last agents, whose goal is to destabilize these powers and undermine their capacity for global influence. Several sources suggest that these organizations have intervened in processes such as Brexit, the U.S. presidential elections or the separatist process in Catalonia. This activity of influence, radicalization and mobilization would have been carried out through the management of social networks and also possibly through the use of the Dark Web and the Deep Web.
One of the most prominent organizations in this activity is Fancy Bear, also known as APT28 and linked by various media to the Russian military intelligence agency. The group serves the interests of the Russian government, with activities that include support for certain candidates and personalities in foreign countries, as was the case in the last White House elections. It often operates through what is called Advanced Persistent Threat or APT, which consists of continuous hacking of a given system through hacking.
Although an APT usually targets private organizations or states, either for commercial reasons or for political interests, it can also goal citizens who are perceived as enemies of the Kremlin. Behind these actions is not a lone hacker or a small group of people, but an entire organization of very large dimensions.
Fancy Bear and other similar groups have been linked to the dissemination of confidential information stolen from global banks, the World Anti-Doping Agency, NATO and the electoral process in France and Germany. An action against the German governmentnetwork was also attributed to them, involving the theft of government data and extensive espionage over a long period of time.
The European Union has been one of the first international players to announce measures in this regard, consisting of a considerable increase in the budget to strengthen cybersecurity and increase research by technicians and specialists in this field. The new figure of the Data Protection Officer (DPO), who is the person in charge of overseeing all issues related to data protection and privacy, is also being created.
The sophistication of the Internet and, at the same time, its vulnerability, have also given rise to a status of insecurity on the network. Anonymity makes it possible to perpetrate criminal activities that know no borders, neither physical nor virtual: this is cybercrime. This was demonstrated on May 12, 2017 with the virus Wannacryvirus, which affected millions of people worldwide.
The reality, then, warns us of the dimension that the problem has acquired: it speaks of a real risk. Society is increasingly connected to the network, which, along with the advantages of all kinds that this entails, also means a constant exhibition to cybercrime. Hackers can use our personal data and the information we share for their own purposes: sometimes as a means of blackmail or as a key to access areas of the subject's privacy; other times this private content is sold. The fact is that the magnitudes to which this problem can reach are overwhelming. If one of the world's leading security agencies, the U.S. National Security Agency, has result hacked, what should simple users, who in their innocence and ignorance are vulnerable and usable subjects, expect?
Added to the problem is the progressive improvement of the techniques and methods used: identities are impersonated and viruses are created for cell phones, computer systems, programs, emails and downloads. In other words, there are few areas within the cyber world that are not considered susceptible to hacking or that do not have some weak point that represents an opportunity for threat and intrusion for any person or organization with illicit purposes.
