Risk of massive cyber attack

SOUTH Africa is totally ill-prepared to ward off and defeat a 9/11-type cyber attack. Major state institutions have been probed and rendered defenceless. Large private companies are being stealthily penetrated as hackers gather to mount a paralysing malware assault unprecedented in the digital age.

Cyber malware is being used to steal money on a massive scale, to influence elections, distort and manipulate news, damage critical infrastructure, and to monitor the world’s secret communication systems.

There is total agreement on the growing risk of a massive cyber attack on all our institutions including critical infrastructure operations, such as power plants, banking, hospitals, nuclear installations, water treatment plants, airports and air traffic control systems, among other critical institutions, that rely on computer systems in the internet age.

States no longer need to launch

missiles to attack an adversary. A relatively new weapon has been introduced into the world’s arsenal, and has no boundaries or rules, costs little and has monstrous potential.

Asymmetric cyber war is the new nuclear weapon of the 21st century. The entire world needs to undergo a paradigm shift on how it views the cyber domain. The global economy is dependent on cyber trade routes. These routes are vulnerable to sustained and warningless attacks. Signals and information can be intercepted, interrupted and exploited.

The once secure nuclear strike systems of the world can also be tampered with, triggering an unintended nuclear catastrophe. The cyber domain has been created in a short time and has not had the same level of security as other battle domains. Unless we are digitally armed and prepared, coded warfare will overwhelm humanity. FAROUK ARAIE |