Threat of next world war may be in cyberspace: UN

The next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief warned Tuesday as experts called for action to stamp out cyber attacks.

"The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower," Hamadoun Toure said.

"Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack," added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU's Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva.

Toure said countries have become "critically dependent" on technology for commerce, finance, health care, emergency services and food distribution.

"The best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place," he stressed.

As the Internet becomes more linked with daily lives, cyberattacks and crimes have also increased in frequency, experts said.

Such attacks include the use of "phishing" tools to get hold of passwords to commit fraud, or attempts by hackers to bring down secure networks.

Individual countries have started to respond by bolstering their defenses.

US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she has received the green light to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts to ramp up the United States' defenses against cyber threats.

South Korea has also announced plans to train 3,000 "cyber sheriffs" by next year to protect businesses after a spate of attacks on state and private websites.

Warning of the magnitude of cybercrimes and attacks, Carlos Solari, Alcatel-Lucent's vice-president on central quality, security and reliability, told a forum here that breaches in e-commerce are now already running to "hundreds of billions."

But one of the most prominent victims in recent years has been the small Baltic state of Estonia, which has staked some of its post Cold War development on new technology.

In 2007 a spate of cyber attacks forced the closure of government websites and disrupted leading businesses.

Estonian Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said in Geneva that "adequate international cooperation" was essential.

"Because if something happens on cyberspace... it's a border crossing issue. We have to have horizontal cooperation globally," he added.

To this end, several countries have joined forces in the International Multilateral Partnership against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), set up this year to "proactively track and defend against cyberthreats."

Some 37 ITU member states have signed up, while another 15 nations are holding advanced discussions, said the ITU.

Experts say that a major problem is that the current software and web infrastructure has the same weaknesses as those produced two decades ago.

"The real problem is that we're putting on the market software that is as vulnerable as it was 20 years ago," said Cristine Hoepers, general manager at Brazilian National Computer Emergency Response Team.

"If you see the vulnerabilities that are being exploited today, they are still the same," she underlined.

She suggested that professionals needed to be trained to "design something more resilient."

"Universities are not teaching students to think about that. We need to change the workforce, we need to go to the universities..., we need to start educating our professionals," she said.

Pointing out the infrastructure weakness, Carlos Moreira, who founded and runs the Swiss information security firm Wisekey, said legislation is needed to bring cybersecurity up to international standards.

The widening impact of I.T.

It appears that the Philippine government has at long last prioritized the development of the country’s IT industry, though the sector still faces numerous challenges in order to modernize its infrastructure. In early August the development of the IT sector in the country drew the attention of the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The ITU deputy secretary-general, Houlin Zhao, visited the country in order to better understand how the progression of IT in a developing country can impact industry, especially during the time of a global economic downturn. The case of the Philippines is particularly intriguing as private sector IT-driven companies have continued to expand despite the gray economic climate, largely due to the growth of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Currently the Philippines is without a fully-fledged department of information and communications technology (ICT), instead relying on a less empowered Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), along with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). While the CICT and the NTC together perform the essential functions of a department of ICT, they lack the funding, support and political power needed to stimulate and maximize IT development.

In June of 2009 the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFC) of the Philippines recommended 10 policy reforms to the Filipino government that it claims will dramatically increase foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country—among those reforms was the departmentalization of the CICT.

Also drumming support for the necessary legislation to be passed through congress, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made a special point in her State of the Nation Address in late July to implore Congress to pass the bill before next year’s elections.

The reality behind the IT sector in the Philippines certainly indicates the need for decisive action. Recently, the Philippines ranked 85th of 134 countries in the Global Information Technology Report. The report, which assesses a country’s ability to establish and improve ICT infrastructure, indicates the country is falling behind the curve, allowing some of its regional neighbors (such as Vietnam and Indonesia) to surpass it. Industry experts are quick to point out inefficiencies—some of which are caused by the presence of overlapping infrastructure.

It should be noted that the archipelagic makeup of the country presents extremely difficult challenges regarding infrastructure development. As a result, broadband penetration in the country remains very low; however, given the advent of affordable netbooks, Internet accessibility in the country is anticipated to grow rapidly in the near future.

In an interview with OBG, the Globe telecom CEO, Ernest Cu, stated that, “The Philippine broadband market is very attractive as penetration rates are low and demand from both consumer and business segments is increasing. In early 2008, only 8 percent of all Filipino households had broadband access, representing just 1.1 percent of our 92 million population and, therefore, the potential for broadband is vast.”

Other issues, such as e-governance, indicate a need for escalating the capabilities of the CICT. Not only can e-governance streamline simple processes, it can increase transparency and accountability in a government severely lacking in both areas. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly possible that part of the Arroyo administration’s 10-point agenda, automated elections, may not be fully functional in time for next year’s voting.

Lastly, issues within the private sector, such as piracy, intellectual property laws and the need for IT courts, should likely be addressed in a sterner manner. According to some estimates, piracy accounts for over two-thirds of the entire software market in the country. Software piracy is a crime punishable with up to nine years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $20,430 under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act 8293). However, the implementation of the law has yet to stem losses due to piracy, which were estimated at $202 million in 2008, up from $147 million in 2007, according to the Pilipinas Anti Piracy Team.

Despite some industry insiders’ perceived lack of government oversight and support, there are several highly promising aspects to the sector—the first of which is the quantity of human resources in the country. While questions pertaining to quality have been raised in recent years, there is no doubt the country produces ample quantities of graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and software development. The English-language capabilities add further value to the human resources of the country.

This is an important factor as the BPO industry is certainly one of the Philippines’ most promising sectors. Also referred to as the country’s “sunrise industry,” BPO has rapidly emerged as a significant contributor to the national economy, accounting for over $6 billion and 600,000 jobs annually.

Over the past decade, growth in the country’s BPO industry has been driven primarily by call centers dedicated to customer service. However, the industry continues to expand in terms of quantity, quality and variety of services. Emerging knowledge-process outsourcing services in areas such as animation, graphic design, IT support and software development will necessitate the continued development of IT students.

Although the Philippines has yet to fully utilize and develop its IT sector, signs indicate that the government will have a department of ICT by 2010. The looming election season of spring 2010, during which time most legislative reform slows, remains the only obstacle. Regardless of congressional outcomes, private sector IT development will continue to grow—creating jobs and adding significant value to the national economy.