Electronic warfare .. Computers not bombs are the weapon of states in modern battles

Ramah Al-Dalgamouni - Al-Jazeera Net

A few days ago, a US government website was hacked, in which a picture of US President Donald Trump was punched, along with pro-Iranian messages, but while this penetration was carried out by perhaps individuals or groups claiming to be from Iran, a war breaks out in secret between the two countries. Internet networks and their computers computers.

The breach of the American site came in response to the killing of the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, General Qassem Soleimani, who sparked strong indignation - both officially and publicly - in Iran, which prompted cyber security experts to warn of Iran's response and the need to prepare for the possibility of carrying out cyber attacks, which may inflict Great financial damage or threat to the lives of Americans.

What is electronic warfare?

The word war here is not a metaphorical use as some may understand, but rather is a true expression of the sabotage and destruction that can be achieved through cyber attacks, targeting the infrastructure and vital services of any country, just as wars do using the deadly weapons carried by aircraft, armored vehicles or soldiers, These are wars that may be hidden in the future behind the new type called electronic warfare.

Cyber ​​warfare is a web-based conflict that involves politically motivated attacks on information and its systems, where it can disrupt official websites and networks, disrupt basic services or steal and modify confidential data, and sabotage financial systems, among many other possibilities.

According to author Jeffrey Carr, author of "Inside Electronic Warfare," any country can wage electronic war on another country regardless of its resources, because most of the military forces are connected to computer networks and connect to the Internet, so they are not safe, and for the same reason NGOs and even Individuals launching attacks and electronic warfare.

Currently, there is a race among rich countries to develop software that would have offensive and defensive capabilities capable of countering any similar attacks like this. The United States is making great efforts to develop defense systems that protect its networks from pirates and destructive attacks by foreign governments, especially China, Russia, and Iran It also seeks to obtain electronic attack capabilities that enable it to disable the enemy's computer networks.

According to the Washington Post, the US military and the rest of the armies in the world see sabotage software as an essential new tool for electronic warfare, given that military computer networks, computer networks and systems concerned with countries' infrastructure and communications networks are being sabotaged.

According to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 15 countries in the world - the countries that possess the largest military budgets - invest in specialized fields in order to obtain electronic offensive capabilities through the Internet, and the integration of electronic capabilities in their military operations.

The United States encourages its companies to devise technologies that will destroy, disrupt, or weaken any hostile cyber attacks, and the US Air Force constantly urges companies and relevant agencies to develop technology projects that would launch rapid cyber attacks against hostile targets and counter such attacks At the same moment.

Experts say that electronic weapons will be used before or during conflicts instead of conventional weapons, in order to work to disrupt or disrupt the enemy's electronic networks, including disrupting the communications networks of the hostile parties.

Models of electronic wars
One of the most evidences of recent cyber attacks, the Staxnet virus - which caused damage to Iran's nuclear enrichment devices - was launched by the United States and Israel in 2010 against computers belonging to Iranian nuclear facilities with the aim of slowing their work.

Among the other attacks is what the Washington Post mentioned, citing its sources, that American cyber security units attacked computers in the Iranian missile control system on the night of June 20, 2019, and those sources described the process as long and its goal was to "paralyze" Iran's missile defense system by disrupting missile platforms or causing damage. Its irreparable.

Examples include the American electronic attack on the Serbian air defense system in 1998 for its penetration in order to facilitate the bombing of Serbian targets, as well as the attack, which is believed to be from Russia and targeted Estonia in 2007, and led to the suspension of all government and private websites and media across the country.

Iran and the electronic war
While Iran is a continuous target of US and Israeli penetration attempts to disrupt its nuclear activities and missile capabilities, but in return it is working to develop an electronic army capable of launching counterattacks.

In February 2019, Noam revealed the emblem of the general in the Israel Defense Forces cyber agency to Bloomberg that his unit had thwarted an Iranian penetration targeting the anti-missile alert system, noting that these Iranian attempts had started since 2017.

And American cyber security experts rose to the warning after the killing of Soleimani that Iranian infiltrators could launch cyber attacks on the United States, cut electricity, destroy important financial records, or disrupt hospital or transportation systems, in ways that threaten lives.

They also warned that they could launch large-scale attacks against American companies by encrypting their information to trade in with them, or targeting government contractors to punish them for working with the White House, or perhaps targeting America's allies in the Middle East or US diplomatic goals abroad.

But Lee Robert, founder of Dragos' cybersecurity company that protects major industrial systems and a former US National Security Agency official, downplayed Iran's capabilities in waging electronic wars and believes that they are still limited, and is not sufficient to launch an attack that could affect an entire country such as closing a large part of The electrical network.

Robert believes that Iranian hackers can disable, for example, electricity on a smaller scale by targeting an American city or parts of it, and what worries him here is that this may succeed in raising a widespread fear of a larger attack, and it may lead to an overreaction. The American and dragged the country into a wider conflict.