WEBVTT - What is a cyberwar, and what tactics do cyber warriors use?

0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.840
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from House staff Works dot com where

0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:15.600
<v Speaker 1>smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what

0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.919
<v Speaker 1>is cyber warfare and what tools do cyber warriors use?

0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.000
<v Speaker 1>Over the past year, we've been hearing a great deal

0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.440
<v Speaker 1>about cyber warfare. The Pentagon talks about it, and it's

0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.080
<v Speaker 1>also come up in relation to wiki leaks China and Iran.

0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.640
<v Speaker 1>Cyber Warfare comes in many forms, and it's interesting because

0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:40.120
<v Speaker 1>the battleground is so different from a traditional battleground. Cyber

0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:45.159
<v Speaker 1>Warfare is essentially invisible to most people, and the combatants can,

0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.320
<v Speaker 1>in theory, be just about anyone in any part of

0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.960
<v Speaker 1>the world. Even though it's unseen and silent. However, it

0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:56.520
<v Speaker 1>can still be quite destructive. Cyber Warfare occurs on and

0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.520
<v Speaker 1>through the Internet and other computer networks. The goal is

0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.920
<v Speaker 1>to attack servers on the Internet, the infrastructure of the Internet,

0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.800
<v Speaker 1>or things controlled by machines communicating through networks. It can

0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.840
<v Speaker 1>be as simple as flipping a switch, or as complicated

0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.240
<v Speaker 1>as a grand master's chess game. The best way to

0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.200
<v Speaker 1>understand cyber warfare is to look at some examples. The

0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.920
<v Speaker 1>simplest example looks more like spying and less like war,

0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.399
<v Speaker 1>but can have big effects. It involves breaking into a

0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 1>computer to steal information. Imagine, for example, that all the

0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.199
<v Speaker 1>plans for the D Day attack in World War Two

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.279
<v Speaker 1>had been stolen. The enemy would have known exactly when, where,

0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.399
<v Speaker 1>and how the attack would unfold, and could mount its

0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.920
<v Speaker 1>defenses with complete confidence. It would have been a catastrophe.

0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.000
<v Speaker 1>In the twenty century, just about everything is stored on computers,

0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.000
<v Speaker 1>and in many cases these computers can be accessed from

0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.880
<v Speaker 1>anywhere in the world. If you have the right password,

0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.440
<v Speaker 1>you can log in and start browsing. Cyber Soldiers can

0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:03.360
<v Speaker 1>discover passwords by guessing, by using dictionary attacks, by using

0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:08.040
<v Speaker 1>social engineering, or by accessing back doors. An example of

0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.000
<v Speaker 1>a back door might be a well known account intended

0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.360
<v Speaker 1>to be used for tech support when machines are being installed,

0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.600
<v Speaker 1>but then never gets deleted. Another example would be data interception.

0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.160
<v Speaker 1>Data flows between people and machines on the Internet, either

0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.920
<v Speaker 1>through radio waves, wires, or optical cables. Data flowing through

0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:32.120
<v Speaker 1>all three of these media can be intercepted and copied. Ideally,

0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.440
<v Speaker 1>sensitive data would all be encrypted so that this type

0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.919
<v Speaker 1>of attack is pointless, but some things we commonly use,

0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.360
<v Speaker 1>like traditional email, are not encrypted. In any way, and

0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.200
<v Speaker 1>sometimes encryption can be broken in the data revealed. Another

0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.680
<v Speaker 1>cyber warfare tactic was used shortly after the founder of

0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.320
<v Speaker 1>Wiki leaks was arrested. Allies of WikiLeaks started attacking different

0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.320
<v Speaker 1>entities perceived to be threatening to Wiki leaks. Several large

0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.079
<v Speaker 1>financial companies saw their so rivers fail. These attacks are

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.560
<v Speaker 1>called distributed denial of service or d d o S attacks.

0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.640
<v Speaker 1>The idea is to overwhelm Internet servers with so much

0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.480
<v Speaker 1>traffic that they can't possibly respond to all of it.

0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Often d d o S attacks are launched by bot nets,

0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.720
<v Speaker 1>collections of thousands of ordinary computers that have been compromised

0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.679
<v Speaker 1>by computer viruses, so that other people can control their actions.

0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.000
<v Speaker 1>It's also possible to imagine thousands of people doing the

0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.880
<v Speaker 1>same kind of thing by acting together in a coordinated way.

0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.320
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of viruses, these computer invaders represent another way to

0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.960
<v Speaker 1>break into an Internet server. If a machine is compromised

0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.920
<v Speaker 1>by a virus or a worm, it would allow someone

0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.080
<v Speaker 1>to copy out data on that machine or log all

0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.000
<v Speaker 1>the key strokes typed into the machine, which would include

0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.760
<v Speaker 1>account names and passwords. One of the most amazing worm

0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.560
<v Speaker 1>scene to date is called Stuck's Net. Apparently, it's a

0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.200
<v Speaker 1>cyber warfare tool designed to damn certain types of industrial machinery,

0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.680
<v Speaker 1>and it's specifically thought to be directed at a rand's

0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.320
<v Speaker 1>ability to enrich uranium. The virus attacks computers that control

0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.760
<v Speaker 1>machines found in factory settings. The existence of stucks net

0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.640
<v Speaker 1>opens up all kinds of possibilities. It's easy to imagine

0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:23.159
<v Speaker 1>people or viruses that attack Internet connected power grids, drinking

0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.159
<v Speaker 1>water supplies, traffic lights, trucking networks, and so on, and

0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.800
<v Speaker 1>bringing parts of society to a standstill. For that matter,

0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.160
<v Speaker 1>it's easy to imagine attacks on anything connected to the Internet.

0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.640
<v Speaker 1>This is one of the unknowns of cyber warfare. It's

0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.599
<v Speaker 1>so new that no one really knows how far it

0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.279
<v Speaker 1>can go. We're sure to find out some of the

0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:49.719
<v Speaker 1>unexpected possibilities in the not too distant future. For more

0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.280
<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics, doesn't house staff

0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.400
<v Speaker 1>works dot com and don't forget to check out the

0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.479
<v Speaker 1>brain stuff blot on the house stuff works dot com

0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.360
<v Speaker 1>home page. You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook

0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:04.000
<v Speaker 1>or Twitter at brain stuff h s W. The hou

0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.880
<v Speaker 1>stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.