Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace by Ronald J. Deibert

Author:Ronald J. Deibert [Deibert, Ronald J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Social Science, True Crime, Computers, Nonfiction, Cybercrime, Security, Retail
ISBN: 9780771025341
Google: sww_ZnurVHEC
Amazon: B004J4X9J2
Barnesnoble: B004J4X9J2
Publisher: Signal
Published: 2013-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

10.

Fanning the Flames of Cyber Warfare

Eugene Kaspersky is the CEO of the Russian-based malware and cyber-security research laboratory that bears his name, Kaspersky Lab. An outspoken, controversial, and sometimes flamboyant figure in the computer security industry, Kaspersky attracted wide public attention in 2011 when his twenty-year-old son, Ivan, was kidnapped by people suspected of having ties to the Russian mafia. Ivan was quickly rescued by Russian security forces, and Kaspersky claimed no ransom had been paid ($4.5 million had been demanded). The incident led to considerable speculation. Russian secret forces do not typically intervene in kidnappings involving average citizens, but Kaspersky is no average Russian and many believe that he made a deal with authorities to gain the release of his son, which Kaspersky vehemently denies.

I first encountered Kaspersky at the London Conference on Cyberspace in November 2011. Organized by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the conference was meant to be a major “rules of the road” meeting of great powers on the future of cyberspace and Kaspersky was among several high-profile speakers. The conference itself was poorly organized and produced no tangible results, but Kaspersky certainly made for good theatre.

Taking his turn at the podium, Kaspersky addressed the buttoned-down crowd. His tie askew, suit threadbare, and hair wild and unruly, he began with a finger-wagging admonition: “I am glad to see that people are finally taking this issue seriously. I have been warning about it for decades. If you had listened to me, and took me seriously, all those years ago.”

After this stark beginning, Kaspersky segued into a more disturbing aspect of his lecture, a series of statements that left many in the assembled crowd squirming, me among them. Kaspersky is concerned about anonymity online, and that too many people are getting away with Internet crime because they can hide their tracks. He believes we need to institute the cyber equivalent of the passport or driver’s licence. We do not allow people to drive cars without a licence, Kaspersky asserted, so why should we let them browse the Internet unchecked, unregulated? And then he went even further, suggesting that Russia should be regarded as a model for the rest of the world when it comes to Internet governance.

Russia? The model for the rest of the world!

Grumbling started at the back of the room and rippled forward. There were grimaces everywhere, especially among our British hosts, but there were also some vigorous nods of approval from law-and-order types, most of them sporting the dark blue suits and very short haircuts that are the uniform of the defence and intelligence community.

In fact, somewhat under the radar, Russia has indeed created a model for cyberspace governance for other autocratic regimes to follow. The Russian Internet, known locally as RUNET, accomplishes controls not through Internet censorship per se, which has been applied only selectively in the past and even then mostly around specific content categories, like homoerotic pornography. Instead, Russian authorities rely on more sophisticated, but also more brutal methods – intimidation,

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