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End of the world as we know it’: Kaspersky warns of cyber-terror apocalypse

June 6, 2012

After his eponymously-named lab discovered Flame, “the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed,” Eugene Kaspersky believes that the evolving threat of “cyber terrorism” could spell the end of life on Earth as we know it.

*Doomsday scenarios are a common occurrence in 2012, but coming from a steely-eyed realist like Eugene Kaspersky, his calls for a global effort to halt emerging cyber threats should raise alarm bells.

A global Internet blackout and crippling attacks against key infrastructure are among two possible cyber-pandemics he outlined.

“It’s not cyber war, it’s cyber terrorism, and I’m afraid the game is just beginning. Very soon, many countries around the world will know it beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Kaspersky told reporters at a Tel Aviv University cyber security conference.

“I’m afraid it will be the end of the world as we know it,” he warned. “I’m scared, believe me.”

His stark warning came soon after researchers at Kaspersky Lab unearthed Flame, possibly the most complex cyber threat ever. While the espionage toolkit infected systems across the Middle East, Iran appears to have been its primary target.

Flame seems to be a continuation of Stuxnet, the revolutionary infrastructure-sabotaging computer worm that made mincemeat of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in 2009-2010.

As Flame is capable of recording audio via a microphone, taking screen shots, turning Bluetooth-enabled computers into beacons to download names and phone numbers from other Bluetooth enabled devices, Kaspersky is certain that a nation-station is behind the cyber espionage virus.

While Kaspersky says that the United States, Britain, India, Israel, China and Russia are among the countries capable of developing such software, which he estimates cost $100 million to develop, he did not limit the threat to these states.

“Even those countries that do not yet have the necessary expertise [to create a virus like Flame] can employ engineers or kidnap them, or turn to hackers for help.”

Like Stuxnet, Flame attacks Windows operating systems. Considering this reality, Kaspersky was emphatic: “Software that manages industrial systems or transportation or power grids or air traffic must be based on secure operating systems. Forget about Microsoft, Linux or Unix.”

Kaspersky believes the evolution from cyber war to cyber terrorism comes from the indiscriminate nature of cyber weapons. Very much like a modern-day Pandora’s Box, Flame and other forms of malware cannot be controlled upon release. Faced with a replicating threat that knows no national boundaries, cyber weapons can take down infrastructure around the world, hurting scores of innocent victims along the way.

Kaspersky believes that it necessary to view cyber weapons with the same seriousness as chemical, biological and even nuclear threats. Mutually assured destruction should exclude them from the arsenals of nation states.

The apocalyptic scenario he painted is fit for the silver screen. No surprise then, that it was a film that converted him to the idea that cyber terrorism was a clear and present danger.

By his own admission, Kaspersky watched the 2007 Film Live Free or Die Hard with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other shouting: “Why are you telling them [how to do this]?”

The film’s plot revolves around an NYPD detective played by Bruce Willis, fighting a gang of cyber terrorists who are targeting FBI computer systems.

“Before Die Hard 4.0, the word cyber terrorism was a taboo in my company. It could not be uttered aloud or discussed with the media. I tried to keep the Pandora’s Box closed. When the film hit the screens, I canceled that ban,” Kaspersky admitted.

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photostill

I've said this since the first days after hearing about Stuxnet. Now someone else is picking up on it but for all the wrong reasons. This reasoning in the way it's worded comes more in the line of 'never let a good crisis go to waste'.

I'm gonna jump around here a bit before I settle down to the above. First let us look at what computers are doing to our life. The first computer was a university experiment that took a whole room full of vacuum tubed boards to set up a glorified calculator. It was created between the years 1940 and 1945 with a collaboration between Great Briton and the US.

Today's miniaturization and better manufacturing processes have led to it being shrunk down to something you can tote with you in your daily life and has multitudes of processing power over and beyond the first room sized computer. It continues to see advancements in processing power, lower power usage, and shrinking size.

It is now believed the day of Singularity is coming. Singularity is a concept made popular in Sci-fi circles where when you die your personality is uploaded to a computer. Your descendants at some point in the future will be able to ask a simulacrum of your personality questions and get answers based on your knowledge and experience. That it leads to the end of 'true death'. Obviously a virus or something of such nature would be a dire threat to such an ending.

Since Flame has been discovered, the controllers have sent out the kill signal, telling the malware to delete itself and vanish. I presume as a way of damage control to prevent more discovery into how it does what it does. It's far too late as the cat is already out of the bag and in the research lab.

The reason this is all a fake crisis, is that the business with the internet being the vehicle to be the kill switch on public utilities isn't really valid if they want to just stop such from happening. After all everything worked for years without internet and can do so again. Pull the plug on the internet and the threat is over. But that's not what is going on here.

What is going on, is that this perceived threat has gotten attention because the average citizen believes it could happen. Fear mongers have been successful in spreading the message and putting the results as something that could happen to the average citizen. The reason the FUD is spread, is there are all sorts of companies that would love to sell the government something else since the wars are winding down, to keep them in business. This is tailor made for just such actions.

It is only a threat if it is allowed to be one.

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