Cyber warfare could be on horizon as threats increase

"For a period of seven or eight years we've see a quiet, non-newsworthy environment. Actually what happened was cybercrime went underground. We moved from an era of notoriety to one of organised crime and theft. What we've seen in the last couple of months is about eight or nine attacks specifically against infrastructure," Kevin Isaac, vice president, emerging region, Symantec tells AMEinfo.com.

SCADA systems are targeted by Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a piece of code which is able to attack the SCADA systems of national infrastructure and potentially disable and alter it. SCADA systems are used in oil and gas, water and power facilities and even control traffic light systems.

As with all attacks, IT security professionals advise companies and countries to be prepared for the worst. "With the kind of serious threats you are seeing today, which Stuxtnet represents, it's even more critical to have a malware strategy, because these are malware and they are driven by malware. If you have a good security system in place then you have the foundation," Keith Maskell, vice president, corporate business, Kaspersky Lab, states.

Reports suggest that the Stuxnet virus, which was found on some systems of the Iranian government, has been developed by governments, which would account for the extra level of sophistication. "Stuxnet is a piece of code with four zero day vulnerabilities built into it, that's the first time we've seen anything like that, it's a very credible and serious threat. This and a few other attacks we've seen around the world are very noteworthy and we need to be paying attention to this," explains Isaac.

However, Kaspersky Labs says detection of the threat is not as big a problem as reports suggest. "Stuxnet is a very interesting threat because it activates only in special conditions. In terms of the sophistication, it is a sophisticated threat, but the method to detecting it is fairly similar to what we already have in our products. Kasperksy already has all the frameworks it needs to tackle the threat. It is innovative from the malware point of view but not innovative from the detection point of view," reveals Maksym Schipka, director, R&D Kaspersky Labs.

Iranian nuclear facility already targeted

The first attack of Stuxnet was discovered in the Iranian nuclear research facility, meaning the potentially catastrophic effects of the virus are huge. While cybercriminals are still looking to steal money and identities, the problem has been overshadowed by this new use of IT viruses.

"Not only are we seeing cybercriminals attack for money and to take identities we are seeing this new threat emerge with cyber warfare and attacks on critical national infrastructure. So I think today more than ever the security and the need to protect ourselves on the internet is becoming a national issue and definitely something which isn't back of mind anymore. The problem with security is it's like insurance; you never want to buy it until it's too late"