Thursday February 20, 2014

I've Been Thinking:

Two years ago the world cyber powers were but three. The United States, Israel and China. They were the only real cyber players.
Today there is a fourth. Iran. Iran is now a serious cyber contender in terms of hacking, attacks and defense.

As recently as early in 2012 Iran was barely involved in cyber warfare. And then, in March of 2012, the Grand Ayatollah created a national council for cyberspace. Like wildfire Iran dedicated monies, hired recruiters and groomed their best and brightest for the cyber war.

Now Iran is both perpetrating attacks on others and protecting itself from attack by others. The Iranians are probably responsible for attacking the Saudi oil company named Saudi Aramco - the energy company that supplies about 10% of the world's oil. The attack erased data from 30,000 computers.

The Grand Ayatollah recently called on students to be their country's "cyber agents." He told them that they should get ready for a war. And Iranian Chief of Staff General Hassan Firousabadi told students that a "decisive battle" was on the horizon. "If any war is launched against Iran, we won't give any ground to the enemy and they themselves know this very well."

The general was speaking of cyber war. Iran is more prepared now than they have ever been. In less than two years, from March of 2012 until today, Iran has become a real player on the world's cyber warfare stage.

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