In The New York Times today, John Markoff and Thom Shanker wrote about how, in 2003, the Pentagon and other military intelligence agencies planned a cyberattack against Saddam Hussein that would have crippled his financial infrastructure in the buildup to the war. However, officials nixed the idea for fear that the results would have far-reaching, and potentially catastrophic, financial consequences around the world. Just more evidence of how we truly live in a "global economy." According to Markoff and Shanker, "fears of such collateral damage are at the heart of the debate as the Obama administration and its Pentagon leadership struggle to develop rules and tactics for carrying out attacks in cyberspace." There were some attacks in the early phases of the war, which saw the ousting of the dictator, and that included, blowing up cellphone towers and communications grids, electronic jamming and digital attacks against Iraq’s telephone networks, and the contacting, by American officials to international communications companies that provided satellite phone and cellphone coverage to Iraq to alert them to possible jamming and to ask their assistance in turning off certain channels.
This highlights the fact that many governments, not just the Chinese and Russians, have the ability to conduct cyber-warfare operations to "level the playing field," even against the most powerful armed forces. Financial disruption and other cyber-attacks undoubtedly will be a part of a much broader operational strategy has we move into the 21st Century. Private enterprises need to protect themselves from such disruption by ensuring that data governance becomes a critical part of their normal business operations.
To read the article in full, please click here: Cyberwar – Halted ’03 Iraq Plan Illustrates U.S. Fear of Cyberwar Risk