UK Calls for Cyber War Rules of Engagement

Image Source: Radio Free Penzance.

Yesterday, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary of the UK revealed that the Foreign Office had come under cyber-attack by a data stealing virus.  This has prompted him to call for international rules for cyber warfare to be set up in cyberspace.  From the Guardian report:

William Hague revealed on Friday that his own staff were hit in December by data-stealing viruses, as he called for agreement on "acceptable rules" for how countries behave in cyberspace.

The foreign secretary's announcement at the Munich Security Conference, which deals with international security issues, follows the revelation that the US and Israel collaborated to create the "Stuxnet" worm to disable Iran's nuclear fuel facility, and that government-backed hackers tried to break into Google's systems in 2009. Now, Britain's government is calling for agreement on how countries should behave in cyberspace.

The attempt to impose rules on cyberspace may be thwarted, however, by the fact that it is almost impossible to confirm the source of hacking because it is so easy to hide one's digital footprints. Despite evidence of US, Israeli and Chinese involvement in attacks, they have never been proved.

Even so, Hague has offered to host a conference on the matter and at Munich gave among examples of internet attacks on "British interests" his own staff and a defence contractor being hit by "Zeus" malware that evaded defences by pretending to come from the White House.

More from the Guardian here, and BBC here.  Other reports on the Zeus trojan and cyber war worries here, here, here, here and here; and related reports on cyber war threats here and here.

For my earlier post on the recent cyber attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, go here.