Inside Cyber Warfare, 2nd Edition

Foreword

Since the first edition of Jeffrey Carr’s Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld was published, cyber security has become an increasing strategic and economic concern. Not only have major corporations and government agencies continued to be victimized by massive data thefts, disruptive and destructive attacks on both public and private entities continue and show no signs of abating. Among the publicly disclosed targets of cyber attacks are major financial institutions, entertainment companies, cyber security companies, and US and foreign government agencies, including the US Department of Defense, the US Senate, and the Brazilian and the Malaysian governments.

Many of these cyber penetrations are aimed at theft of identity or financial data for purposes of criminal exploitation. These cannot simply be regarded as a “cost of doing business” or tolerable losses; such episodes undermine the public trust, which is the foundation for business transactions over the Internet. Even more significant is the threat posed by cyber theft of intellectual property. Every year, economic competitors of American businesses steal a quantity of intellectual property larger than all the data in the Library of Congress. As a result, these rivals are gaining an unfair advantage in the global economy.

Also gaining in seriousness are organized efforts to disrupt or even destroy cyber systems. Anarchist and other extremist groups, such as Anonymous and LulzSec (and their offspring), seek ...