Cybercrime and Cyber Warfare (Focus: Information Systems, Web and Pervasive Computing) by Igor Bernik

Author:Igor Bernik [Bernik, Igor]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

2.4.1. Espionage

Countries are increasingly tightening their legislation on cybercrime and are trying to limit and prevent such kinds of actions by individuals and civil society organizations as much as possible, while at the same time the opposite tendency can also be observed, with countries extending the field of intervention and intrusion in communication and computer systems. They are creating immense systems for controlling all means of communication and increasingly training their personnel for illegal interventions in the computer and communications systems of individuals, corporations, government bodies and institutions. Since information is a highly sought-after commodity nowadays and the struggle for fresh and relevant information is becoming global, national cybercrime remains unpunished and is permitted by the international political public [DOB 09]. A typical example of this is Echelon25, from which the United States has tangible benefits, as it uses it to supervise competitive economic information with a view to exploit it in an unjustified way and to the detriment of other countries in order to enhance the performance of the U.S. economy. In 2001, the European Commission in its final report for that year officially confirmed, for the first time, the existence of this spy network, which uses software tools that filter the intercepted data and searches for relevant information for the client.

In addition to electronic spying systems, the civil infrastructure and commercial sphere are also used to obtain confidential information necessary for cyberwarfare. Google recently confirmed that they have repeatedly handed over data on the provision of their services to European users to the U.S. intelligence services, despite the fact that the data were stored only on servers in Europe and not in the United States. The same was also confirmed by Microsoft, which handed over data regarding Office 365 users. Microsoft and Google were forced to hand over the data due to theAmerican antiterrorism legislation, the Patriot Act, which binds U.S. companies to hand over all the required information, regardless of where the data are located. In doing so, they have consciously violated European provisions on the protection of personal data, which require the consent of an individual before the handing over of their data to third parties (foreign governments). A similar situation also occurred in relation to Facebook, as a disclosed confidential document26 reveals that Facebook, at the request of government services, provides all data about users, including their private conversations, past activities and personal data of their friends [MAN 11].

By using the described methods, countries are trying to provide data and information for the purposes of national security, as well as for the needs of private economic spheres. Thus, countries are helping companies by giving them strategically important economic information. The Echelon spy system is still primarily designed to gather military and political data, but the advantage of power in the military and political spheres is incomplete if one does not also have economic domination. Such systems are usually part of intelligence activities27 or are intended for the collection of information in a way that is characteristic of covert operations conducted by law enforcement agencies.

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