1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from House staff Works dot com where 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what 3 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:20,919 Speaker 1: is cyber warfare and what tools do cyber warriors use? 4 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: Over the past year, we've been hearing a great deal 5 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 1: about cyber warfare. The Pentagon talks about it, and it's 6 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: also come up in relation to wiki leaks China and Iran. 7 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: Cyber Warfare comes in many forms, and it's interesting because 8 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: the battleground is so different from a traditional battleground. Cyber 9 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:45,159 Speaker 1: Warfare is essentially invisible to most people, and the combatants can, 10 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: in theory, be just about anyone in any part of 11 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: the world. Even though it's unseen and silent. However, it 12 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: can still be quite destructive. Cyber Warfare occurs on and 13 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: through the Internet and other computer networks. The goal is 14 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: to attack servers on the Internet, the infrastructure of the Internet, 15 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: or things controlled by machines communicating through networks. It can 16 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,840 Speaker 1: be as simple as flipping a switch, or as complicated 17 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: as a grand master's chess game. The best way to 18 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: understand cyber warfare is to look at some examples. The 19 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: simplest example looks more like spying and less like war, 20 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,399 Speaker 1: but can have big effects. It involves breaking into a 21 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: computer to steal information. Imagine, for example, that all the 22 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,199 Speaker 1: plans for the D Day attack in World War Two 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,279 Speaker 1: had been stolen. The enemy would have known exactly when, where, 24 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: and how the attack would unfold, and could mount its 25 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: defenses with complete confidence. It would have been a catastrophe. 26 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:49,000 Speaker 1: In the twenty century, just about everything is stored on computers, 27 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: and in many cases these computers can be accessed from 28 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: anywhere in the world. If you have the right password, 29 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: you can log in and start browsing. Cyber Soldiers can 30 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: discover passwords by guessing, by using dictionary attacks, by using 31 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: social engineering, or by accessing back doors. An example of 32 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: a back door might be a well known account intended 33 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: to be used for tech support when machines are being installed, 34 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 1: but then never gets deleted. Another example would be data interception. 35 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: Data flows between people and machines on the Internet, either 36 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,920 Speaker 1: through radio waves, wires, or optical cables. Data flowing through 37 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 1: all three of these media can be intercepted and copied. Ideally, 38 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: sensitive data would all be encrypted so that this type 39 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,919 Speaker 1: of attack is pointless, but some things we commonly use, 40 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: like traditional email, are not encrypted. In any way, and 41 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: sometimes encryption can be broken in the data revealed. Another 42 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: cyber warfare tactic was used shortly after the founder of 43 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: Wiki leaks was arrested. Allies of WikiLeaks started attacking different 44 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: entities perceived to be threatening to Wiki leaks. Several large 45 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:02,079 Speaker 1: financial companies saw their so rivers fail. These attacks are 46 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: called distributed denial of service or d d o S attacks. 47 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,640 Speaker 1: The idea is to overwhelm Internet servers with so much 48 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: traffic that they can't possibly respond to all of it. 49 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 1: Often d d o S attacks are launched by bot nets, 50 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: collections of thousands of ordinary computers that have been compromised 51 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,679 Speaker 1: by computer viruses, so that other people can control their actions. 52 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: It's also possible to imagine thousands of people doing the 53 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: same kind of thing by acting together in a coordinated way. 54 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: Speaking of viruses, these computer invaders represent another way to 55 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 1: break into an Internet server. If a machine is compromised 56 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: by a virus or a worm, it would allow someone 57 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: to copy out data on that machine or log all 58 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 1: the key strokes typed into the machine, which would include 59 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: account names and passwords. One of the most amazing worm 60 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: scene to date is called Stuck's Net. Apparently, it's a 61 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: cyber warfare tool designed to damn certain types of industrial machinery, 62 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 1: and it's specifically thought to be directed at a rand's 63 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: ability to enrich uranium. The virus attacks computers that control 64 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: machines found in factory settings. The existence of stucks net 65 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: opens up all kinds of possibilities. It's easy to imagine 66 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 1: people or viruses that attack Internet connected power grids, drinking 67 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: water supplies, traffic lights, trucking networks, and so on, and 68 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: bringing parts of society to a standstill. For that matter, 69 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 1: it's easy to imagine attacks on anything connected to the Internet. 70 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 1: This is one of the unknowns of cyber warfare. It's 71 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: so new that no one really knows how far it 72 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: can go. We're sure to find out some of the 73 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: unexpected possibilities in the not too distant future. 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