Cyberwars may sound incredibly scifi-based but governments are bracing themselves for the new computer frontier. Pavla Tolonen wonders if we’ll all survive.

As we get richer, lazier and more likely to surrender in a fight due to our sugar and carb-infested existence, we are also more prone to complain online and avoid real combat in any way possible. This behaviour, apparently, may also apply to actual warfare.

Governments across the globe have no doubt already solidified a selection of cybercrime policies, but now reports are trickling in suggesting that real war conflict may be settled online.

Now, we’re not talking about Mikhail Saakashvili taking on Dmitry Medvedev in World of Warcraft or Command & Conquer, but a fully-fledged attack on global databases, and they say it has already begun.

This month’s DDOS (denial-of-service) attacks on micro-blogging site Twitter showed how significantly a global network of millions of users can be disabled in a mere matter of seconds. Yet, still, experts are cavorting in the exuberance of cloud computing, in which users store data online.

Fair enough, it may be efficient and probably quite safe, but where are all the users who cry about user’s rights and the horrible tentacles of big brother. Surely keeping all your important documents on a foreign server far away from your own reach is simply you handing them over, nonchalantly hoping they will never be accessed and tampered with. Don’t be fooled, free email accounts really do have a price - they tax your prerogative.

To be fair, cloud computing is certainly an effective way to share software and interoffice documents, but as service providers increase their capacity to uphold more facilities online, we should not entirely follow by keeping all our activities on their server.

Service providers do not ultimately owe you anything as you are a free consumer, therefore you are entrusting them with your information with no real leverage. As you owe them for the service, they can take the right upon themselves to control the system, and all your information.

Of course email account providers like Yahoo, Hotmail and GoogleMail guarantee your personal details, but the bigger their data bases become, and the more they move towards comprehensive cloud computing, the higher the risk is that somebody attempts to attack them for it.

So with computing, just like anything else, remember to spread the risk over several sources. Buy an external hard-drive (or at least a USB stick), invest in more than one email address and keep any important printed files at home.

Image credit: tnarik

Pavla Tolonen reports on the DDOS attacks that have crippled Twitter, the micro-blogging service.

Micro-blogging site Twitter crashed today leaving 24 million visitors without access to the website. Twitter was hit by numerous denial-of-service attacks (DDOS) at 3 PM (GMT), and while the website reappeared active for a time, it failed to allow users to log-in.

Described by The Guardian as the technological equivalent of ringing a door bell and draining the person who answers of a huge chunk of energy, the attack seems almost too harmless to be true.

It seems evident that hitting Twitter with such a vast amount of DDOS attacks would prepare a hacker, or indeed a team of hackers, for another coup, on another website which has far more valuable information. The age-old blackmailing technique is another DDOS attack favourite, shutting down whole websites before key events or fundraisers, and demanding a considerable fee to cease attacks.

Twitter has never been hit before, but perhaps it was just a matter of time since the company has grown exceptionally in the past year. London, according to Ofcom, is the most Twitter-subscribed city in the world with 2.4 million users.

Image Credit:barnoid

Clueless or cunning -  it’s hard to tell with Gary McKinnon. Pavla Tolonen weighs out all the elements.

The ever-important task of changing your passwords regularly may seem tedious, but this delicate task could easily be the most important thing you do in terms of online security - especially if you are the US government.

After being arrested in Britain in 2002, indicted for eight computer-related crimes in the US, and losing several British and European High Court appeals, Glasgow-born Londoner Gary McKinnon may now face a 70-year prison sentence for hacking into US government intelligence.

The 43-year-old, who has Asperger’s syndrome, claimed he was looking for the truth about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and could not resist the temptation of breaking into US governmental files after discovering clear loopholes in their security system. Many officials, he said, had simply ignored the need to change their default passwords – a classic rookie mistake.

McKinnon told the BBC in 2005: “I found out that the US military use Windows and having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn’t secured it properly.” More recently he said he was on a “moral crusade”, leaving messages behind insulting the US security system. Clearly he was not concerned about disguising himself as he used his personal email address.

The US government has cited $800,000 (£487,000) worth of damage occurred between 2001 and 2002 because of McKinnon’s hacking – a figure which he disputes. The American authorities are particularly sensitive about the time proximity of the breech to the 11 September 2001 New York bombings.

McKinnon’s Asperger’s syndrome, a rare form of autism comprising of an obsessive nature and naivety regarding logical thinking, like consequential thinking, has been keenly noted by the press. Celebrities such as Trudy Styler and Sting have protested for his release on the grounds of him not being able to cope with prison like a “normal” person.

Although McKinnon has lost his final appeal against extradition, campaigners speaking on his behalf say Home Secretary Alan Johnson could use his clout with the American officials to influence the outcome. Johnson has denied this possibility, saying that this would be against the US-UK extradition laws. He’s probably right, as long as he can guarantee McKinnon will not be tried as a terrorist.

A website demanding he be tried in Britain, instead of the US, where his family and friends believe he will be treated like a terrorist and possibly sentenced for 70 years in prison, has been set up as www.freegary.org.uk. The Home Secretary told The Daily Telegraph that McKinnon would clearly not serve any sentence in a “supermax” prison.

Image credit: www.freegary.org.uk