“The ones and zeros are our missiles,” noted the frigate captain Enrique Pérez de Tena, head of cooperation Joint Cyberspace Commandlast Wednesday, at II National Conference on Disinformation and Defense of the University of Murcia.
This organization, created in 2013 and dependent on the Ministry of Defensehas among its objectives to pursue cybercrime or digital attacks from countries, cybercriminals or enemy groups. Quite a challenge, for several reasons.
“We have a single game board and anyone with an internet connection can be a player”
For a start, Cyberspace has no borders. “We have a single game board and anyone with an internet connection can be a player,” he explains.
The weapons have also changed, whichtime they don’t shoot bullets, they are computer programs. And it turns out that “a cyberweapon is much cheaper than a tank or a rifle.”
Besides, there is no type of arms control: “No one knows what computer tools an enemy has, who also hides in the anonymity of the Internet.”
Search for vulnerabilities
What hasn’t changed are the tactics. “It is always about looking for vulnerabilities in your objective. It is what human beings have done since the beginning of time when they have wanted to take something from another,” says the frigate captain.
Thus, the first thing the attacker does is study what weak points the system has. Something that is easier than defending it. “To protect a normal computer, its 60,000 logical ports would have to be protected. The enemy only needs to find one to enter,” he points out.
Well-coordinated cyberattacks pose a risk to the stability of countries and governments
What are the risks? Cyberattacks, if not stopped in time and well enough coordinated, “They can destabilize a country and overthrow governments“he says.
In this sense, the main cyber threats that Spain faces “are the same as those that affect ordinary citizens, plus those that have government agencies or critical infrastructures as targets of enemy intelligence analysts.” He Cyberspace Command It is responsible for preventing, detecting and responding to these attacks.
“We are neither at war nor at peace, but in a gray zone where the limits are blurred”
“We are neither at war nor at peace, but in a gray zone where the limits are blurred. We are receiving cyber attacks every day,” Pérez de Tena observes.
License to attack
On the other hand, the Internet has become the place where plans, strategies and military actions related to the security of a country are stored and, in the worst case, exposed.
“My job is to try to prevent the attacker from seeing our operations in cyberspace. The goal is to have full access to the information and, at the same time, prevent the enemy from having it,” he says.
“In the digital world, the attack does not end. You can’t hide in your shell and wait for it to end, because there are going to be thousands of programs working to look for holes where to enter your system. “Sometimes the only defense is to destroy the servers where the aggression comes from,” he says.
“We are the only ones with license to attack. The order has to come from the President of the Government.” Because, in his experience, the only way to defend against a computer attack is to counterattack.
Who owns the algorithms?
The owners of the information are no longer the governments, but the big technology companies
On the other hand, Perez de Tena emphasizes the current transfer of power. Who is the owner of the information, of the teradata of any of us, on the Internet? It is no longer governments, but large technology corporations.
“We can regulate what we want, but those who have the business and the money will continue doing what they want. Because… who puts doors to the countryside?” he reflects.
Of course, for this expert, artificial intelligence is nothing more than a tool“that we have to use because the bad guys are going to use it. However, today “what is not going to happen to us Terminatorhumans will always be behind technology to supervise and control it.”
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