Digital Forensics Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham The University of Texas at Dallas Lecture #33 Information Warfare November 19, 2007

Outline l What is Information Warfare? l Defensive Strategies for Government and Industry l Military Tactics l Terrorism and Information Warfare l Tactics of Private Corporations l Future IW strategies l Surveillance Tools l The Victims of Information Warfare l Appendix: Surveillance l Reference Part IV of Text Book

What is Information Warfare? l Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one's own information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of opposing force information and denial of information collection opportunities to opposing forces.collectionassurancepropagandadisinformation demoralizeenemy l

Defensive Strategies for Government and Industry l Are US and Foreign governments prepared for Information Warfare - According to John Vacca, US will be most affected with 60% of the world’s computing power - Stealing sensitive information as well as critical, information to cripple an economy (e.g., financial information) l What have industry groups done - IT-SAC: Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis l Will strategic diplomacy help with Information Warfare? l Educating the end user is critical according to John Vacca

Defensive Strategies for Government and Industry l What are International organizations? - Think Tanks and Research agencies - Book cites several countries from Belarus to Taiwan engaged in Economic Espionage and Information Warfare l Risk-based analysis l Military alliances - Coalition forces – US, UK, Canada, Australia have regular meetings on Information Warfare l Legal implications l Strong parallels between National Security and Cyber Security

Military Tactics l Supporting Technologies - Agents, XML, Human Computer Interaction l Military tactics - Planning, Security, Intelligence l Tools - Offensive Ruinous IW tools l Launching massive distributed denial of service attacks - Offensive Containment IW tools l Operations security, Military deception, Psychological operations, Electronic warfare (use electromagnetic energy), Targeting: Disable enemy's C2 (c0mmand and control) system and capability

Military Tactics l Tools (continued) - Defensive Preventive IW Tools l Monitor networks - Defensive Ruinous IW tools l Information operations - Defensive Responsive Containment IW tools l Handle hacking, viruses. l Other aspects - Dealing with sustained terrorist IW tactics, Dealing with random terrorist IW tactics

Terrorism and Information Warfare l Terrorists are using the web to carry out terrorism activities l What are the profiles of terrorists? Are they computer literate? l Hacker controlled tanks, planes and warships l Is there a Cyber underground network? l What are their tools? - Information weapons, HERF gun (high power radio energy at an electronic target), Electromagnetic pulse. Electric power disruptive technologies l Why are they hard to track down? - Need super forensics tools

Tactics of Private Corporations l Defensive tactics - Open course intelligence, Gather business intelligence l Offensive tactics - Packet sniffing, Trojan horse etc. l Prevention tactics - Security techniques such as encryption l Survival tactics - Forensics tools

Future IW Tactics l Electromagnetic bomb - Technology, targeting and delivery l Improved conventional method - Virus, worms, trap doors, Trojan horse l Global positioning systems l Nanotechnology developments - Nano bombs

Surveillance Tools l Data emanating from sensors: - Video data, surveillance data - Data has to be analyzed - Monitoring suspicious events l Data mining - Determining events/activities that are abnormal l Biometrics technologies l Privacy is a concern

Victims of Information Warfare l Loss of money and funds l Loss of shelter, food and water l Spread of disease l Identity theft l Privacy violations l Death and destruction l Note: Computers can be hacked to loose money and identity; computers can be used to commit a crime resulting in death and destruction