Cyber Attack as an Asymmetric Threat

By Milica D. Djekic, Independent Researcher

Abstract: Cyberspace is yet unsafe environment for communication and data transfer. Hacker’s organizations can target many servers, datacenters and endpoints relying on capacities of only one workstation. That means cyber attack is a multiple-user threat which can affect a plenty of networks. The information-communication infrastructures are critically vulnerable to a wide spectrum of hacking campaigns. The bad guy on another side of the grid will see what is going on with targeted machine and easily doing drag-and-drop of malware applications cause sabotage with such a network. Cybercrime is a crime area by the Interpol and there are the entire legal regulations and case procedures which can guide law enforcement officers how to combat that criminality applying the best practices. The modern Police Forces are capable to resolve a lot of criminal justice investigations as there is still strong dependability on emerging technologies and current cyber assets. The main appeal to defense community of today is to assure manageability of the risk in high-tech surrounding as coming industrial tendencies could dictate those requirements. This study will carefully analyze all cyber challenges being obvious in the practice attempting to suggest some possible responses to those criminal scenarios.

Keywords: cyber defense, risk, intelligence, criminology, asymmetric warfare, etc.

Introduction

Cybercrime is a criminal responsibility of someone affecting security, privacy and the other interests in virtual spot. The consequences of the high-tech criminality can be far reaching and potentially dangerous to national and global population. Hacker’s operations are normally launched from some IT equipment and they can threaten many. The hacker’s organizations which goal is to assault national needs deal with threat to critical infrastructure as impacts to such an asset can be catastrophic. In other words, that’s a direct interfering with country’s safety and security using advantages of new technologies. The ongoing best practice in criminology can tackle such a case, but there is yet need to take into consideration passive methods of defense as prevention is for a reason in such a case it is possible to save as many as it is feasible. Cyber defense is from strategic importance to any nation and state as it can mitigate risk and protect community from potential drawbacks. The major motive for hacking is a profit and those law breakers do not hesitate to attack anything being from vital significance. The ultimate imperative of recent strategies was safety as something being convenient to many, but today it’s clear it’s needed to go a step higher in order to protect lives, businesses and infrastructure from arising threats. [1, 5] The best practice in policing is strongly attached to dependability of offenders on information-communication grid as anyone spending time there leaves footage and throughout detail analysis it is possible to locate any threat relying on cyber systems. Many brilliant ideas in security have demonstrated some weaknesses, because there is still risk from human factor being a part of the system. Service demands a lot, but there is a great appeal for better background investigation and timely confirmations of officers as they can become insider threats which intentionally or unintentionally do a leakage of the confidential findings. Combating such a challenge is uneasy and takes a lot of knowledge and experience as even the system members can be corrupted working against the interests of their society and encouraging concerning behavior of their people. The aim of the crime actors is to involve as many individuals as they can into illegal activities as their motto is they are stronger when there are many of them. That can significantly compromise an image and reputation of such a society within international cycles as the majority of the honest world can feel need to punish anyone supporting crime. The bad guys will always challenge and the mission of the good guys is to protect innocent people being the victims of such an occurrence, so far.

The 21^st century has brought new technological revolution, as well as the heaps of security challenges. Cybercrime costs global economy trillions of dollars per annum, but some sources claim that the overall loss could be much bigger. Cyberspace has become a battlefield for cyber criminals and cyber warriors as it can be used to access anything being online. Sitting in front of screen or using a cellular phone can turn into horrifying experience as hackers are capable to do tracking, sabotage or espionage of anyone’s accounts, devices or the other IT assets. Indeed, cyber security has developed some counter-measures to reflect those inconveniences and some tendencies in science and technology can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In other words, the situation is concerning, but there are some remarks it is possible to tackle such a crime.

Combating cybercrime is a criminology question and the current trends suggest nowadays best practice in case management is a powerful weapon in the hands of the investigators. Also, it is clear that there is not yet full awareness how corruption can be dangerous in generating novel insider threats which can try to ruin the system from inside. The crime’s environment has evaluated into respectful ecosystem which has caused the zero-trust order across the globe. [9] The criminals are stronger when they are together and they will mostly cope with strict rules and hierarchy within their syndicates. In their belief, there is always the method to trick the authorities and make the common people experiencing unrest in their communities. In expert’s opinion, sometimes is so trickery to challenge criminal and terrorist organizations as they can react putting under risk both – people and resources. Apparently, the investigation seeks from the Police to be very discrete, because if the criminals find out someone is conflicting with their interests they can provide a furious response blackmailing many to stop operating against their needs. The ongoing crime’s organizations are capable to shake the entire global landscape as they deal with power in their hands. In addition, virtual surrounding is a place where is feasible to conduct asymmetric warfare operations causing dramatic impacts to many. It seems cybercrime is a challenge to the modern authorities as it is the mix of technical and security matters. Managing risk in cyberspace is a tough task and some guidelines indicate there will be the huge need for a deep understanding of those issues.

Criminology is a science about the methodologies, techniques and approaches how to identify; process and resolve some criminal justice incident which should get its epilog on the court. On the other hand, it is important to understand crime as an attack to the legal system and its values. The mankind has a long history and through any past epoch the countries have coped with the laws being invoked to determine the rights, obligations and responsibilities of the community members living under such a rulership. If anyone would dare to breach the legal regulation that person would be punished following that time’s investigation steps. With the progress of civilization the conditions have changed, but any approved country dealt with the authorities being trained to enforce the rules and protect people from the crime. The similar situation is even today as all legitimate states must guarantee the law enforcement on their territory as that is the only way to be a part of the United Nations which role is to assure legacy and human rights in regards with modern criteria of the legal societies. [16] Throughout history, there have always been geo-strategically important regions and those areas are commonly transit routes for crime’s organizations. The past of those fields was turbulent and usually the place of conflicts, unrests and crises. If the local authorities are not capable to ensure the governance on their territory such a country might become the spot where crime blooms. In such a sense, it’s obvious why the international collaboration in criminology is needed as the criminal and terrorist organizations cannot recognize the borders and in today’s connotation they have a status of the transnational security challenges. Therefore, the identical case is with the cybercrime as anyone being online can become the victim of hacking. Further, high-tech criminality especially cannot recognize the limits as their actors can access the infrastructure at any point of the world producing so dangerous consequences to all. Hackers do not need to show their ID document in order to attend some place in the world; they only need to figure out IP address and such an asset will be all theirs.

Background Information

Under the modern condition any device being on the web can be used as a hacking tool. Downloading and installing the hacker’s software on an object is simple task and the entire internet is overwhelmed with so handy tutorials, hacker’s forums and similar online content. In other words, it’s easy to become a cyber criminal and some experiences suggest that even the secondary school students can deal with skill being sufficient to make the first steps in such a crime area. The tendency shows cybercrime underworld recruits new members at that age and once thrown in such a business they can stay there for a long period of time. Average cyber criminal has a potential to turn into the other crime areas which makes him getting the hybrid threat. Typical case in criminology is that anyone with that skill can be suitable for drug trafficking, financial crime, human smuggling and even terrorism. Preparing the high-tech campaign takes time and effort and many crime organizations know how to take advantage over their cyber warriors. Only one hacking machine can cover a plenty of targets making out of attacked devices a grid which receives commands from a centralized workstation being capable to exploit all available vulnerabilities within an hour or two. The developed economies have a tendency to cope with smart technologies which means their peripherals communicate through TCP/IP channel and not via cables which is the case in the previous generation of computers. That means such a centralized system copes with network sharing capacities putting any device into grid and assigning it its IP address. [1-4] The modern marketplace offers some solutions on the web which can be applied to discover IP addresses and the other details in the network 4.0. The skillful hackers can demonstrate a wide spectrum of capabilities and sometimes it is a challenge to prevent cyber operation. The law enforcement agencies need to work smart in order to cut the information exchange in the cyberspace and carefully choose a moment to find out when the threat’s plan is uncovered and further open for being mitigated. The next generations hacking challenges can be far more notorious than at present, but cyber industry yet needs to think about advancements which are at least a step ahead of the threat.

High-Tech Operation Challenges

Cyber technologies capture the majority of the information-communication systems which serve to deliver the findings from one point to another. Those technologies are highly sensitive to hacker’s attacks as they can be approached from anywhere if they are in the network. Professional defense equipment can expose the devices even if they are not on the web, while the ordinary hacking tools are useful only if the object is online. The nightmare to hackers is once they access the cyberspace they will leave a trace within such an asset. The modern best practice in criminology shows that those cases can be resolved in an investigation fashion as there is the strong skill with the authorities worldwide. In addition, some fundamental researches across the globe can offer the helpful inputs to the entire high-tech industry. The cyber industry is so powerful drive which role is to offer a betterment of many coping with cutting-edge systems. It’s time of cyber-physical revolution and the majority of current professionals deal with skill to improve and innovate what already exists, as well as provide some novel paths in their area of expertise. The cyber campaigns can offer a wide domain of the potential threats to people, businesses and resources and those challenges should be tackled intelligently as the ongoing century has given unrests and crises over the globe. In order to protect the international interests in the world the cyber community must put a lot of effort developing tactics and strategies how to manage the risk within the virtual surrounding.

Characteristics of Asymmetric Landscape

The point of the asymmetric battlefield is a small group of the challengers will try to attack the numerous enemy. In other words, it’s not about the warfare between two or more equally powerful sides, but manly the conflict of some crime organization with the entire country or even the global community. The modern age is witnessing such a situation as the minority of the world’s population believes it can get a power and dominance over the rest of the people. Combating asymmetric threat is very demanding as those folks cope with well-developed techniques of pushing their interests in the world. Cyber attacks are also asymmetric risk as it is possible to use a small army of the high-tech warriors which are capable to assault a heap of the targets within several hours causing so impactful harm. Apparently, after conducting a campaign the hackers normally select to escape and sometimes it is a challenge to locate them. The best policing practice can offer some response to such a criminality mostly through the international cooperation as cybercrime is a transnational offense.

Feasible Responses to Hacking

The usual cyber attacks can affect the accounts, endpoints, communication and anything being correlated with the web experience. The internet grid is available mostly with any place in the world and hackers know how to exploit its vulnerabilities. There are three sorts of cyber security such as prevention, surveillance and incident response. The leading experts in the field recommend to attempt to balance amongst those three types of defense. The perfect outcome to that challenge is to make an equal distribution of those key pillars once something is going on in the cyberspace. Also, the cyber security marketplace copes with some skill gap, but even in that case it is necessary to take an ingenious approach getting roads which probably exist, but they are not aware today.

Cybercrime as a Criminology Matter

According to some global Police and security associations, any abnormalities in the cyberspace are recognized as a crime. Those occurrences are normally described in some legal regulation, so skillful Police officers can determine a sort of the criminality and suggested punishments. The way which leads from the initial information to case conclusion must be crossed with investigation procedures that serve to make the case by the accepted laws. From expert’s point of the view, the policing is a multidisciplinary area as it involves both – natural and social sciences professionals. Indeed, anyone in such an organization has some role and the main imperative is to assure solidarity between the staffing that serves for the same mission.

Considerations and Impacts

Some findings suggest that the cybercrime costs the global economy more than 5% of the world’s gross product. Those are very wasted finances and if there would be a method to save those losses many people would be happy and secure. The high-tech attacks are the real disaster of the modern time and true headache to many governments over the world. Indeed, one of the ultimate challenges to nowadays criminology is how to reduce a rate of that offense as the population across the globe could work peacefully in order to impact a total productivity and effectiveness to their societies.

Conclusion

Asymmetric landscape has challenged the world throughout history as it brings a disbalance to many spheres of the lives and works. It’s obvious than ever the security could be the most significant tendency in the future as the overall world literally creeps for better days. This century is an age of the challenges, so the entire defense community is needed to be united in order to protect global values and standards.

References:

[1] Djekic, M. D., 2017. The Internet of Things: Concept, Application and Security. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

[2] Djekic, M. D., 2021. The Digital Technology Insight. Cyber Security Magazine

[3] Djekic, M. D., 2021. Smart Technological Landscape. Cyber Security Magazine

[4] Djekic, M. D., 2021. Biometrics Cyber Security. Cyber Security Magazine

[5] Djekic, M. D., 2020. Detecting an Insider Threat. Cyber Security Magazine

[6] Djekic, M. D., 2021. Communication Streaming Challenges. Cyber Defense Magazine

[7] Djekic, M. D., 2021. Channelling as a Challenge. Cyber Defense Magazine

[8] Djekic, M. D., 2021. Offense Sharing Activities in Criminal Justice Case. Cyber Defense Magazine

[9] Djekic, M. 2019. The Informant Task. Asia-Pacific Security Magazine

[10] Djekic, M. D., 2020. The Importance of Communication in Investigations. International Security Journal

[11] Djekic, M. D. 2019. The Purpose of Neural Networks in Cryptography, Cyber Defense Magazine

[12] Djekic, M. D. 2020. Artificial Intelligence-driven Situational Awareness, Cyber Defense Magazine

[13] Djekic, M. D. 2019. The Perspectives of the 5th Industrial Revolution, Cyber Defense Magazine

[14] Djekic, M. D. 2019. The Email Security Challenges, Cyber Defense Magazine

[15] Djekic, M. D. 2016. The ESIS Encryption Law, Cyber Defense Magazine

[16] Đekić, M. D., 2021. The Insider’s Threats: Operational, Tactical and Strategic Perspective. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

About The Author

Milica D. Djekic is an Independent Researcher from Subotica, the Republic of Serbia. She received her engineering background from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade. She writes for some domestic and overseas presses and she is also the author of the books “The Internet of Things: Concept, Applications and Security” and “The Insider’s Threats: Operational, Tactical and Strategic Perspective” being published in 2017 and 2021 respectively with the Lambert Academic Publishing. Milica is also a speaker with the BrightTALK expert’s channel. She is the member of an ASIS International since 2017 and contributor to the Australian Cyber Security Magazine since 2018. Milica’s research efforts are recognized with Computer Emergency Response Team for the European Union (CERT-EU), Censys Press, BU-CERT UK and EASA European Centre for Cybersecurity in Aviation (ECCSA). Her fields of interests are cyber defense, technology and business. Milica is a person with a disability.