Fergie's Tech Blog

Russia's Chechen Model for its Georgia Cyber Attack

Via IntelFusion.

Cyber warfare as a military strategy is still in its infancy, and Western conceptions of just what cyber warfare is are in sharp contrast to that of Russia and China. In fact, just last year, General James Cartwright called the U.S. cyber warfare effort “dysfunctional“. And today, 18 months later, the USAF top leadership pulled the plug on its own 8th Air Force Cyber Command (h/t Danger Room), which is very interesting timing in light of Russia’s recent cyber and military attack against Georgia.

Unlike the U.S. effort, which is hugely complex, costly, and confusing, Russia has opted for a more efficient, low cost model that outsources the work to hacker groups like the Russian Business Network or the Eurasian Union of the Youth (ESM) who were responsible for last year’s cyber attack against the Ukrainian Security Service’s Web site.

While there isn’t unanimous consent among computer security firms and consultants that Russian hackers are working on behalf of the Federal Security Service (FSB), there is ample evidence to suggest that very thing.

posted by Fergie @ 8/13/2008 08:00:00 PM