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the military regime used denial of service attacks on several opposition websites. The Defense Services Intelligence (DDS) set up the Defense Services Computer Directorate (DSCD) in 1990, which was then focused primarily on military communications, but it soon became more focused on information warfare.[164] In 2004 the service was disbanded as a result of the former prime minister and intelligence chief being arrested during a military coup. The DDS was later reformed as the Military Affairs Security (MAS), which took on the majority of the cyber warfare functions. The MAS reportedly received major assistance from Singapore, but many of the cyber experts in MAS received training from Russia and China.[165]

The military cyber warfare division surfaced again in March 2011 when it was tracked to the hacking of an exiles media website that routinely criticizes the regime.[166] The media website was also taken down in 2008, presumably by the MAS.[167] In the first quarter of 2011 Myanmar was the world’s leader in received cyber attacks, not necessarily indicating that the MAS was at fault, but rather that hackers around the world are taking advantage of Myanmar’s weak Internet security laws.[168]

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[164] Brian McCartan, “Myanmar on the cyber-offensive,” Asia Times, October 1, 2008 accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JJ01Ae01.html.

[165] Ibid.

[166] “Exile Website Hacked,” Radio Free Asia, March 14, 2011, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.rfa.org/english/news/burma/hacked-03142011175904.html.

[167] Ibid.

[168] “Cyber war: Myanmar leader in attacks in 2011,” AsiaNews.it, July 28, 2011, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Cyber-war:-Myanmar-leader-in-attacks-in-2011-22224.html.

NATO

A very large contingent of NATO’s cyber warfare capabilities rest in the establishment of NATO’s Cyber Defense Center (detailed earlier in the section Estonia). In November 2010 NATO conducted its third cyber exercise dubbed The Cyber Coalition of 2010.[169] The exercise simulated cyber attacks against NATO and alliance members to test the response of the decision-making process, which was very similar to the Cyber Europe exercise that the European Union conducted earlier in November 2010. Currently, NATO networks are spread among several countries, many of which have not yet reached agreements on standard operating procedures for data sharing. All NATO members are not expected to reach similar agreements for NATO networks until 2013.[170]

Since the cyber attacks on the NATO member nation of Estonia, NATO has implemented quick responses such as the Cyber Defense Center, but it also has been working on a long-term policy concept that was formally agreed upon at the 2011 Lisbon summit.[171] The strategic concept includes many obvious realizations, such as the necessity of cyber defense to NATO’s core tasks of collection defense and crisis management, but it also displays an absence of offensive-capabilities focus.[172] While these capabilities may not have made it to the unclassified version of the strategic concept, it is rather strange that none was mentioned. The current strategy is to build only cyber defensive capabilities, which is likely an attempt to streamline the ability to protect member nation networks against the already-developed offensive capabilities of adversary nations.[173]

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[169] Warwick Ashford, “NATO gears up for cyber warfare with latest exercise,” Computer Weekly, November 18, 2010, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/11/18/243979/NATO-gears-up-for-cyber-warfare-with-latest-exercise.htm.

[170] Ibid.

[171] “NATO adopts new Strategic Concept,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), November 19, 2010, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.nato.int/strategic-concept/index.html.

[172] Jason Healey, “NATO Cyber Defense: Moving Past the Summit,” The Atlantic Council, June 24, 2011, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/nato-cyber-defense-moving-past-summit.

[173] Jorge Benitez,