Much like the nuclear threat during the Cold War in the last century, cyberwarfare is a potential catastrophe that the U.S. and other nations must be prepared to combat, Gartner Inc. said. Given the rate of adoption of Internet-based technology, nations will have the ability to conduct cyberwarfare by 2005.
"The world's not going to hell in a hand basket, so we can get that off the table," David Fraley, author of the recent Gartner report, said. "What's important for people to do is continuity planning--be aware of the different threats and vulnerabilities that could hit their organizations."
Organizations could suffer irreparable harm if they don't have a strategy for keeping their businesses running, if facilities are unable to operate.
"The difference between cyberwarfare and hacking is the magnitude," Fraley said. "Cyberwarfare is on a much grander scale."
Increasing the possibility of cyberattacks is the ever-increasing use of Internet-protocol networking technology to connect critical infrastructure, as well as the movement in voice communications from a circuit- to packet-switched architecture, the research firm said.
IP networks carrying voice traffic use voice over IP (VoIP) equipment that is susceptible to traditional Internet threats like worms, viruses and break-ins from hackers. Denial-of-service attacks, for example, that often take down web sites, could be used to disrupt the flow of voice-carrying packets on an IP network, causing a major breakdown in communications.
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