NATO Constant Victim of Cyber Espionage

Computer Science specialists are almost a dime a dozen these days – the halls of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo pulsate with the creative energy of these modern-day architects, many of whom are self-taught. But being a computer wiz has other, less than legal and decidedly more sinister, applications.

Computer crime is on the rise and agencies who handle sensitive information that could prove lethal should it fall into the wrong hands are at constant risk.

Recently, a suspect known to the public only as ‘R Ç’ was apprehended for allegedly using spy-ware to infiltrate Turkish government computers on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and NATO. Since the 1970s, the PKK has staged a military campaign to form an independent, socialist Kurdish state in the historic region of Kurdistan.

Local sources report that R Ç was able to infect systems of Turkey’s intelligence agency, as well as those of the group that manages the Turkish military. He allegedly passed on confidential government documents to the PKK. The suspect faces charges that could have him locked away for up to ten years.

R Ç has been identified, but what of the hundreds of other hackers like him?

Indeed, NATO reports that its own computers are constantly under the attack of individuals and organizations wanting access to its confidential military information. To protect itself against the threat of cyber espionage, NATO has implemented a cyber defense policy and first response cyber team on 24/7 standby, but even these precautions have not caused the attack volume to decline.

NATO’s headquarters, just south of Brussels, Belgium, houses an Incident Management Section, whose focus is defending NATO against the onslaught of cyber attacks which have been on the go since Kosovo a decade ago. Cyber attacks can bring down not only websites, but also complete national services, media organizations and banking associations. Which begs the question, is anything really secure anymore?

In 2007, Estonia came under severe cyber attack from Russian sympathizers, and NATO suspects the involvement for the first time of government agencies in those attacks.

NATO officials themselves have been ‘socially profiled’ and then targeted with custom Trojans – emails designed to seem as if they are coming from a close friend of relative. Once the email is opened by its unsuspecting target, the Trojan goes to work in stealth mode, scanning computer files, sending them on, deleting them, or even changing them without the user knowing.

Of course, no confidential NATO information is allowed transmission over the insecure world wide web, but even senior officials are known to slip up, and the consequences can be severe.

Although NATO won’t share who they think is behind the attacks, they do admit to having approximately 100 monitors deployed in almost 30 different sites across the world. These sensors are intended to pick up on the more serious cyber threats and funnel the information back to Belgian headquarters.

For many, the future of spying and cyber espionage are one and the same. Watch this space. And brush up on your coding skills if counterintelligence if your game.