Cyber Conflict Research

Rain Ottis

21.4.2023

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Disclaimer

The opinions expressed are those of the presenter and should not be considered as official policy of the CCD COE or NATO

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Outline

• My background – why cyber defence?• What is a cyber conflict?• Volunteers in cyber conflicts• Farmers with laptops• National security implications• Spam• Q&A

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About me

• 1999-2003 – USMA, BSc (Computer Science)• 2003-2005 – EDF Signal Battallion, instructor• 2005-2008 – National Defence College, TDC

CIS, cyber defence section chief• 2008- ...... – CCD COE, scientist

• 2005-2007 – TUT, MSc (Informatics)• PhD studies in TUT since 2007

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Cyber Conflict

• Definition, please?• Cyberspace, cyber society, cyber attack, cyber

stuff etc.

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Cyber Conflict

• An information system is a system* that is designed to operate with information.

* a fixed set of elements and their properties or relations

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Cyber Conflict

• A weapon is a system that is designed to damage the structure or operations of some other system(s).

• An information technology weapon, or shorter – IT weapon, is an information technology based system that is designed to damage the structure or operations of some other system(s).

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Cyber Conflict

• A cyber weapon is an information technology based system that is designed to damage the structure or operations of some other information technology based system(s).

• Cyber weapons are a subset of IT weapons

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Cyber Conflict

• Cyber incidents are events that cause or may cause unacceptable deviation(s) in the structure or operation of an information system (or its components, including information, hardware, software etc.).

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Cyber Conflict

• Cyber attack is the intentional use of a cyber weapon or a system that can be used as a cyber weapon against an information system in order to create a cyber incident.

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Cyber Conflict

• Cyber espionage is the use of cyber attacks to cause a loss of confidentiality of the target system.

• Cyber conflict is the use of cyber attacks (which must include attacks against integrity or availability of the target systems) to achieve political aims.

• Cyber war is a cyber conflict between state actors.

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Volunteers in Cyber Conflict

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Volunteers in Cyber Conflict

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Volunteers in Cyber Conflict

• (Using) politically supportive civilian assets• Create, Hijack or Manipulate? Or hope for the

best?• Plausible deniability• Low attribution level• May be protected from legal actions• Geographically spread out• Diverse arsenal• LOW resource need

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Volunteers in Cyber Conflict

• Difficult to plan, control, restrain• Indirect control mechanism• Effectiveness not guaranteed• Rise of cyber crime

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L33T H4X0R 1.0 - resources

• Access to a PC • Internet connection• Web browser• Time to browse forums and websites• -----• Potentially administrator rights on the PC• Potentially PC is a laptop with wireless

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L33T H4X0R 1.0 - skills

• Using the web browser• Using a search engine• Downloading files from a web site• Opening data files (.doc, .xls etc.)• Opening (running) executable files• Copy-paste commands to command line and

execute

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L33T H4X0R 1.0 – support actions

• Propaganda & Recruitment• Supply• Training• Reconnaissance & Targeting• Observation• Fog of War

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Сегодня, проводится грандиозная DoS-атака на сайт их правительства http://www.riik.ee/et/

ооуществить это легко - заходим в Пуск - Стандартные - командная строка, в открывшемся окне пишем : ping -n 5000 -l 1000 http://www.riik.ee

на это вы потратите 5 мегабайт исходящего трафика.

L33T H4X0R 1.0 – support actions

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L33T H4X0R 1.0 - attacks

• Denial of Service (DoS)• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)• Web defacement• Infecting systems with malware

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Rocket science?

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National security implications

• Attribution• Deterrence• Cyber Power• Critical Information Infrastructure Protection• Educating the end user• ...

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I want in!

• CCD COE Annual Conference– Conference on Cyber Conflict, 15-18 June 2010– Will happen again in 2011

• ECIW 2011 – co-hosted by CCD COE and TUT Cybernetics Institute, July 7-8, 2011.

• IEEE Special Edition on Cyber Conflict – Abstracts due 15 June 2010– To appear in fall 2011

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References

• Lorents, P. and Ottis, R. (2010) ”Knowledge Based Framework for Cyber Weapons and Conflict.” In Czosseck, C. and Podins, K. (Eds.) Conference on Cyber Conflict. Proceedings 2010. Tallinn: CCD COE Publications, p 129-142.

• Ottis, R. (2009) ”Theoretical Model for Creating a Nation-State Level Offensive Cyber Capability.” In Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Information Warfare and Security, Lisbon. Reading: Academic Publishing Limited, p 177-182.

• Ottis, R. (2010) ”From Pitch Forks to Laptops: Volunteers in Cyber Conflicts.” In Czosseck, C. and Podins, K. (Eds.) Conference on Cyber Conflict. Proceedings 2010. Tallinn: CCD COE Publications, p 97-109.

• Ottis, R. (2010) ”Proactive Defence Tactics Against On-Line Cyber Militia.” 8th European Conference on Information Warfare and Security, 01-02.07.2010. Thessaloniki, Greece. [to appear]

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Questions

Thank you!

www.ccdcoe.org

http://conflictsincyberspace.blogspot.com UNCLASSIFIED