Governments take war to cyberspace - report

TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA
Staff Writer | Friday November 30, 2007 00:00

As a result, the Internet is increasingly becoming a weapon of military, political and economic espionage. These are some of the findings of this year's McAfee Criminology Report released on Wednesday.

Smaller countries will increasingly be under threat as cyber-crime turns from a pastime practised by a few curious computer geeks to organised and very sophisticated government-funded operations.

The report, released by McAfee, the company mainly known as an anti-virus software developer, is released annually as a guide to the latest issues relating to cyber-security in the world.

According to the report, there is an increasing rise of cyber spying and cyber attacks with a total 120 countries already engaged in Web espionage.

'There are signs that intelligence agencies around the world are constantly probing other governments' networks looking for strengths and weaknesses and developing new ways to gather intelligence,' the report indicates. 

In a world where most of the services depend on online access, the increasing sophistication of attack techniques means that online services are under threat. However, there is a much more dangerous pattern; the use of software weaknesses to damage critical government infrastructure.

'The emergence of a sophisticated market in software flaws that can be used to carry out espionage and attacks on critical government infrastructure,' it adds. 

Cyber crime will increasingly become a major threat to national security for many countries. However, the report shows that a majority of countries are ill-prepared both legislatively and, most importantly, with regard to infrastructure, to deal with such threats since 'most government agencies and companies use common computing technologies and systems...frequently penetrated by criminal hackers and malware'.  

Meanwhile, Parliament is debating the cyber crime and computer-related crimes bill, which the Minister for Communications, Science and Technology, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi tabled on Wednesday.