What would a country do if another nation was to initiate a first strike against it, an attack against their critical infrastructure, for example, the country’s ports, or rail or airports? Surely as a minimum you would declare war against the striking nation?
Well America, it seems, in conjunction with possibly Israel, have struck not once, not twice, but, if we believe what is in the press, three times against Iran’s critical national infrastructure.
The first strike was Duqu, designed to collect information on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, according to the New York Times story, the virus, was created in partnership with Israeli officials.
The second strike, was Stuxnet, designed to attack the Iranian nuclear infrastructure, in a program that was launched during the Bush administration and expanded under President Obama, code-named ”Olympic Games”.
And the latest strike is Flame, like Duqu, a reconnaissance tool, that has the extra capability to download new functions at any time the command is issued from its controlling master.
If these were physical strikes, against physical infrastructure, Iran and America would officially be at War, as its virtual, no such declaration has been made.
It is interesting that the loudest outspoken country, warning of the potential cyber threats is, in itself, America. Top administration officials, such as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and National Security Agency (NSA) Director Keith Alexander, have been very outspoken of the potential threat to the good old US of A from the cyber threats.
It is unlikely that at some level these gentlemen were not aware of the Bush/Obama administration ”Olympic Games” program against Iran, yet at the same time claiming the significant risk to America. Were they afraid of retaliatory strikes?
Certainly if you knew you were striking against other sovereign nations you would have a concern that they would strike back at some stage. Under U.N. rules, Iran has the right to take proportional actions in self-defense if the first strike is consider to meet the definition of an “Armed Attack”. The jury is out on whether a cyber attack against critical national infrastructure is an “Armed Attack”, some argue yes, some argue no, but one thing is clear, the definition of war and “Armed Attack” will need to be revisited.
Modern warfare it seems will be fought on a different theatre, do we have to wait until there is a loss of life before we consider it a “real” war? Of course America still has plausible deniability, as it is difficult to prove the Trojans came from America, unlike if its planes were to drop a bomb or two on the Iranians.
Knowing that America and its allies are already attempting first strikes against other global nations, should we be more concerned that the critical world infrastructure is in American hands/control, we are of course talking about the DNS Root servers and Domain Name infrastructure, control that infrastructure; and you have the potential to control the world.