Inside Cyber Warfare - Jeffrey Carr [143]
* * *
[105] FGUP STC Atlas was formerly subordinate to the Federal Security Service (FSB). The FSB has legislative responsibility for Russia’s overall information security, and it controls cryptographic technology. As a result, STC Atlas and the FSB continue a close relationship. STC Atlas also certifies foreign technology for Russian use.
[106] The Federal Law On Mass Media provides numerous ways for the creative mind to suppress dissent. Article 43 establishes a right of reply, allowing citizens to refute media allegations. Article 44 establishes the modalities for publishing refutations.
[107] Russian press interviewed the League’s financial backer Konstantin Malofeyev and pointed out that his business websites hosted erotic content.
Further Research Areas
So far we have discussed only the top-line structure of Russia’s information security apparatus. Operating beneath is a robust network of technical centers, academic entities, and commercial companies—many spinoffs of state structures—working on information security. At the national level, Scientific Technical Center (STC) Atlas,[108] formerly subordinate to the FSB, maintains a network of facilities across the country with major development centers in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhniy Novgorod. The MOD’s Scientific Research Institute for Automation (NIIA) works on information security for strategic command and control. The FSB also maintains several Scientific Technical Centers focused on information security.
And then there are the unacknowledged components. The network of youth groups, institutes, and pseudo-NGOs that spawn bloggers and websites supporting the government and protecting Russia’s “spiritual life.” These are the people who can form cyber mobs and conduct DDoS attacks when needed, the ones who will fill Facebook and Twitter with pro-Putin pages and tweets.
* * *
[108] STC Atlas receives source code on Microsoft products from Microsoft for certification so Microsoft products.
Chapter 16. Cyber Warfare Capabilities by Nation-State
This is a comprehensive overview of nation-states that are involved in standing up a cyber operations capability; however, there are now so many states enabling this capability that it became impossible to list them all in the time provided to write this chapter. This chapter features a survey of the majority of them.
Australia
In a 2009 Australian Defense white paper, the Australian government is taking initiatives to develop and enable a new cyber warfare capability.[109] It states that the new department will “consist of a much-enhanced cyber situational awareness and incident response capability, and the establishment of a Cyber Security Operations Centre to coordinate responses to incidents in cyber space.”[110] The words “response” and “defense” are used many times in the paper, with no specific mention to offensive capability. However, it does suggest it will be present with the text “maximize Australia’s strategic capacity and reach in this field.”[111]
To accomplish this, Australia welcomed the opportunity to increase cooperation with the UK on cyber issues. In January 2011, Australia and the UK announced they will use their existing joint work on cyber security for the foundation of a sophisticated cyber partnership by further expanding the collaboration of their cyber security agencies and departments.[112]
A few months later, in March, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization opened a new cyber investigations unit, tasked with investigating and advising on state-sponsored cyber attacks involving Australia.[113] The close cooperation of the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team