How Much Do Cyber Weapons Cost?

Cyberwar games at the United States Military Academy.
(Photo: Michael Falco for The New York Times)

Max Smeets, Council on Foreign Relations: How Much Does a Cyber Weapon Cost? Nobody Knows

Can a non-state actor take down critical infrastructure with a cyberattack? If it is not possible today, will it be possible in the future? Experts disagree about the capabilities of non-state actors in cyberspace, let alone agree on their future capability.

There is debate within cybersecurity community and academia whether cyber weapons are getting cheaper and thus within the reach of the self-proclaimed Islamic State or other non-state groups. Although there is some general consensus that offensive cyber operations will be less expensive in the future, there is very little understanding of what influences the cost of a cyber weapon. Making sense of the inputs and defensive environment that drive the cost of a cyber weapon is essential to understanding what actors—whether state, non-state, or criminal—will attain what kinds of cyber capability in the future.

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WNU Editor: The trajectory of software has always been the same .... capabilities and functionality is better and easier to use .... but the cost remains the same. Will this apply to cyber weapons .... probably.

U.S. Quietly Spending Billions On Cyber Weapons

West Point students, from left, Lieut. Colonel Robert Fanelli and cadets Nathan Larsen, Mark Evinger (seated) and Marc Abbott participate in National Security Agency cyberwar games. Michael Falco / The New York Times / Redux

Cyber Command Investment Ensures Hackers Targeting U.S. Face Retribution -- Washington Times

Pentagon budget documents detail growing military commitment to cyberwarfare

In the shadows of the Sony hacking incident and North Korea’s massive Internet outage, the Pentagon has quietly built a multibillion-dollar cyberwarfare capability and trained its commanders to integrate these weapons into their battlefield plans.

U.S. Cyber Command was officially stood up in 2010, based at Fort Meade in the Maryland suburbs of the nation’s capital, consolidating intelligence and cyberwarfare capabilities of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines under one house. Soon, billions of dollars were being invested in the concept that cyberattackers targeting America should be prepared to sustain their own damage.

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My Comment: It makes you wonder if this is why North Korea lost its internet today .... North Korea's Internet Network Has Just Collapsed.

Are Cyber Arms Dealers Setting Up Shop?

The relationships between various attacks.FireEye

Where Do Cyber-Weapons Come From? Try A Cyber Arms Dealer -- Leo Mirani, Quartz

When the US Air Force designated six “cyber tools” as “weapons” in April this year, Quartz asked, “What the heck is a cyber-weapon, anyway?” The answer, we found, was vague: Any computer program meant to inflict damage could qualify. These could be developed by military, government, commercial entities or lone actors.

A new report (pdf) from FireEye, an American computer security firm, suggests that they can also, to extend the “cyber-weapon” metaphor, come from “cyber arms dealers.” The report found that 11 seemingly disparate attacks on a wide variety of government and commercial targets may have originated from a single source. They shared the same tools, the same elements of code, the same digital certificates, and identical timestamps, indicating that even if the actors were different, they acquired their tools—or weapons—from the same place.

The attacks, which together cover several years, were all “advanced persistent threats,” which are more or less what they sounds like. FireEye was able to tie in all the attacks to a single campaign, nicknamed “Sunshop,” which among other things targeted the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Korean military think tanks, and an Uyghur discussion forum. All the attacks seemed to originate from China, the report found.

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My Comment: Talk about nightmare scenarios .... a "builder tool" with a graphical interface that is available to the public to build cyber weapons.

How Spying Software Can Be Abused By Governments

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

This Powerful Spy Software Is Being Abused By Governments Around The World -- Business Insider

A new report presents overwhelming evidence that sophisticated spying software is being abused by governments around the world.

The findings by The Citizen Lab, a digital research laboratory at the University of Toronto, detail how the software marketed to track criminals is being used against dissidents and human rights activists.

Titled "For Their Eyes Only: The Commercialization of Digital Spying," the report focuses on a type of surveillance software called FinSpy that can remotely monitor webmail and social networks in real time as well as collect encrypted data and communications of unsuspecting targets.

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My Comment: A heads up on how the surveillance society is evolving.

A New Sophisticated Cyber Weapon 'Flame' Discovered In The Middle East

A sophisticated cyber-espionage virus called 'Flame' was found in the Middle East targeting Iran primarily said Russian software security group Kapersky. (SecureList/Courtesy)

Flame: World's Most Complex Computer Virus Exposed -- The Telegraph

The world's most complex computer virus, possessing a range of complex espionage capabilities, including the ability to secretly record conversations, has been exposed.

Middle Eastern states were targeted and Iran ordered an emergency review of official computer installations after the discovery of a new virus, known as Flame.

Experts said the massive malicious software was 20 times more powerful than other known cyber warfare programmes including the Stuxnet virus and could only have been created by a state.

It is the third cyber attack weapon targeting systems in the Middle East to be exposed in recent years.

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More News On The Latest Computer Virus

New Computer Virus Looks Like a Cyberweapon -- New York Times
Cyber weapon ‘Flame’ discovered in thousands of Middle East computers -- Financial Post/Reuters
Computer worm that hit Iran oil terminals 'is most complex yet' -- The Guardian
Powerful 'Flame' Computer Virus Hits Iran, Mideast -- Radio Free Europe
New computer virus hits Iran, West Bank in unprecedented cyberattack -- Haaretz
A new era of cyber warfare: Virus 'weapon' has siphoned secrets from thousands of PCs in Middle East undetected for five years -- Daily Mail
Massive targeted cyber-attack in Middle East uncovered -- CNet
The 'Flame' Computer Virus Strikes Iran, 'Worse Than Stuxnet' -- Arutz Sheva
Complex cyberwar tool 'Flame' found ALL OVER Middle East -- Register
Spy virus 'Flame' infects Middle East -- News 24
Massive cyberattack 'Flame' discovered in the Middle East -- Global Post
'Flame' espionage malware has infected computers across the Middle East -- Wired
‘Flame,’ a cyberweapon that makes Stuxnet look cheap -- Beyond the Beyond.

Pentagon Wants Cyberweapons NOW

The U.S. Navy's Cyber Defense Operations Command U.S. Navy

Pentagon Announces New Strategy: Rapidly Develop Cyberweapons to Attack Specific Targets -- Popular Science

The Pentagon wants cyberweapons, and it wants them fast. Deftly recognizing that cyberweapons are nothing like the materiel of physical warfare, the DoD is devising a means to fast-track and field certain cyberweapons, some of which will take only days to go from development to deployment.

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My Comment: Why the rush? What are they not telling us?

Pentagon Is Speeding Up Its Cyberweapon Research

The Pentagon is creating a next-generation cyberweapon.(Reuters / Rick Wilking)

Pentagon To Fast-Track Cyberweapons Acquisition -- Washington Post

The Pentagon is planning to dramatically speed up the development of new cyberweapons, giving it the ability in some cases to field weapons against specific targets in a matter of days, according to a new Pentagon report to Congress.

The rapid acquisition process is designed to respond to “urgent, mission-critical” needs when the risk to operations and personnel is unacceptable if threats are not addressed quickly, according to the 16-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Congress required the Pentagon to prepare the report on how it could accelerate acquisition of cyberweapons.

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More News On The Pentagon's Quest For Cyberweapons

U.S. accelerating cyberweapon research -- Washington Post
Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon -- RT
DoD: Cyber Weapons May Be Better Than Cyber Espionage Tools -- Nextgov
Cyber warfare rules still being written -- Washington Times
DOD working on guidelines for cyberwar operations -- Stars and Stripes
DoD’s cyber rules of engagement -- DoD Buzz
DARPA Director: Cyber Research Needs Innovation, Talent -- Defpro
U.S. Military Readies Cyber 'Rules of Engagement' -- Information Week
3 factors inhibit DOD cyber infrastructure defense -- Defense Systems

Budget cuts put cybersecurity at risk -- Politico

Pentagon Accelerates It's Cyber Weapons Program

Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon. (Reuters / Rick Wilking)

U.S. Accelerating Cyberweapon Research -- Washington Post

The Pentagon is accelerating efforts to develop a new generation of cyberweapons capable of disrupting enemy military networks even when those networks are not connected to the Internet, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The possibility of a confrontation with Iran or Syria has highlighted for American military planners the value of cyberweapons that can be used against an enemy whose most important targets, such as air defense systems, do not rely on Internet-based networks. But adapting such cyberweapons can take months or even years of arduous technical work.

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More News On the Pentagon Accelerating It's Cyber Weapons Program

US to fast-track cyber weapons -- New Age
Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon -- RT
US to fast-track cyber weapons -- Sydney Morning Herald
Pentagon goes on offense with new cyber weapons -- The Hill
Pentagon ramping up cyberweapon development -- Nextgov

Stuxnet Is Not The Only Cyberweapon 'Out There'

Stuxnet Cyberweapon Looks To Be One On A Production Line, Researchers Say -- Christian Science Monitor

Evidence is rising that Stuxnet, a cyberweapon that attacked Iran's nuclear facilities in 2009, is part of a supersophisticated manufacturing process for malicious software, two antivirus companies tell the Monitor.

Somewhere in the world, the creators of the Stuxnet worm are involved in a cyberweapon manufacturing operation that can pump out supersophisticated malicious software tweaked for specific missions, new targets, and detection evasion.

Stuxnet, the first military-grade cyberweapon known to the world, has been called a digital missile and a cyber-Hiroshima bomb. But it was not a one-shot blast, new research shows. Rather, Stuxnet is part of a bigger cyberweapons system – a software platform, or framework – that can modify already-operational malicious software, researchers at two leading antivirus companies told the Monitor.

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More News On Stuxnet And Other Cyberweapons

Stuxnet Virus’ Roots Traced to 2007, Reports Kaspersky -- Spam Fighter
Researchers: Stuxnet, Duqu Part of a Malware Arsenal Dating to 2007 -- PC Mag
Stuxnet and Duqu Part of Larger Cybermalware Campaign -- PC World
Stuxnet, Duqu Date Back To 2007, Researcher Says -- Information Week
Kaspersky: Stuxnet and Duqu built by same team -- ZDNet
Cyberbomb That Hit Iran Was 1 of 5 Weapons, Researchers Say -- FOX News/Reuters
Lethal Stuxnet cyber weapon is 'just one of five' engineered in same lab - and three have not been released yet -- Daily Mail
Sophisticated cyberattacks became the norm in 2011 -- Defense Systems
Looking Back at Cyber in 2011, With Some Forward Looking Too -- Steven Bucci, Security Debrief

Britain Embraces The Use Of Cyber Weapons

The Cabinet Office and the Cyber Security Operations Centre at GCHQ (above) have taken the lead on cyber weapons Photo: PA

Cyber Weapons 'Now Integral Part Of Britain's Armoury' -- The Telegraph

Cyber weapons are being developed by the Government to counter the growing number of internet-based threats to national security, ministers have disclosed.

A "toolbox" of offensive cyber weapons is being assembled to fight hackers targeting military facilities, secret databases, critical emergency services and Whitehall departments.

Nick Harvey, the Armed Forces minister, acknowledged the existence of the programme and admitted that cyber weapons were "an integral part of the country's armoury" in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.

He said: "Action in cyberspace will form part of the future battlefield. We need a toolbox of capabilities and that's what we are currently developing.

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My Comment: Like most stories that expose government efforts to developing cyber weapons .... this one does not go into specifics. Unfortunately .... I suspect that if they do go into specifics and details .... this information will be ultimately used against us.