The New Digital Age

by Jared Cohen

  perhaps unwittingly introduced by a Natanz employee on a USB flash drive: Ibid.

  as the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, admitted: Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, “Attack on Iranian Nuclear Scientists Prompts Hit Squad Claims,” Guardian (Manchester), November 29, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/iranian-nuclear-scientists-attack-claims.

  had escaped “into the wild”: Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&ref=davidesanger&pagewanted=all.

  references to dates and biblical stories: Elinor Mills, “Stuxnet: Fact vs. Theory,” CNET, October 5, 2010, http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20018530-245.html.

  written by as many as thirty people: Michael Joseph Gross, “A Declaration of Cyber-War,” Vanity Fair, April 2011, http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/stuxnet-201104.

  an early variant of Stuxnet: Elinor Mills, “Shared Code Indicates Flame, Stuxnet Creators Worked Together,” CNET, June 11, 2012, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57450292-83/shared-code-indicates-flame-stuxnet-creators-worked-together/.

  Unnamed Obama administration officials confirmed: Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&ref=davidesanger&pagewanted=all.

  “Do you really expect me to tell you?”: Meir Dagan in discussion with the authors, June 2012.

  Olympic Games, was carried into the next administration: Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&ref=davidesanger&pagewanted=all.

  After building the malware and testing it: Ibid.

  Larry Constantine … challenges Sanger’s analysis: Larry Constantine, interview by Steven Cherry, “Stuxnet: Leaks or Lies?,” Techwise Conversations (podcast), IEEE Spectrum, September 4, 2012, http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/computing/embedded-systems/stuxnet-leaks-or-lies.

  Michael V. Hayden, the former CIA director, told Sanger: Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&ref=davidesanger&pagewanted=all.

  Sanger reported that American officials denied that Flame was part of the Olympic Games: Ibid.

  security experts at Kaspersky Lab: “Resource 207: Kaspersky Lab Research Proves That Stuxnet and Flame Developers Are Connected,” http://www.kaspersky.com/about/news/virus/2012/Resource_207_Kaspersky_Lab_Research_Proves_that_Stuxnet_and_Flame_Developers_are_Connected; Mills, “Shared Code Indicates Flame, Stuxnet Creators Worked Together,” http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57450292-83/shared-code-indicates-flame-stuxnet-creators-worked-together/.

  identified a particular module, known as Resource 207: “Resource 207: Kaspersky Lab Research Proves That Stuxnet and Flame Developers Are Connected,” http://www.kaspersky.com/about/news/virus/2012/Resource_207_Kaspersky_Lab_Research_Proves_that_Stuxnet_and_Flame_Developers_are_Connected.

  a senior Kaspersky researcher explained: Mills, “Shared Code Indicates Flame, Stuxnet Creators Worked Together,” http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57450292-83/shared-code-indicates-flame-stuxnet-creators-worked-together/.

  diplomatic fight in 2007 over the Estonian government’s decision: “Bronze Soldier Installed at Tallinn Military Cemetery,” RIA Novosti (Moscow), April 30, 2007, http://en.rian.ru/world/20070430/64692507.html.

  mass of prominent Estonian websites: Ian Traynor, “Russia Accused of Unleashing Cyberwar to Disable Estonia,” Guardian (Manchester), May 16, 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/may/17/topstories3.russia.

  Estonia is often called the most wired country on Earth: Joshua Davis, “Hackers Take Down the Most Wired Country in Europe,” Wired, August 21, 2007, http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia?currentPage=all.

  Urmas Paet, accused the Kremlin directly: Doug Bernard, “New Alarm Bells, and Old Questions, About the Flame Virus and Cyber-War,” VOA (blog), May 30, 2012, http://blogs.voanews.com/digital-frontiers/tag/cyber-war/.

  NATO and European Commission experts were unable to find evidence: “Estonia Has No Evidence of Kremlin Involvement in Cyber Attacks,” RIA Novosti (Moscow), June 9, 2007, http://en.rian.ru/world/20070906/76959190.html.

  websites for the Georgian military and government were brought down: John Markoff, “Georgia Takes a Beating in the Cyberwar with Russia,” Bits (blog), New York Times, August 11, 2008, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/georgia-takes-a-beating-in-the-cyberwar-with-russia/; John Markoff, “Before the Gunfire, Cyberattacks,” New York Times, August 12, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/technology/13cyber.html.

  Russian hackers targeted the Internet providers in Kyrgyzstan: Gregg Keizer, “Russian ‘Cybermilitia’ Knocks Kyrgyzstan Offline,” Computerworld, January 28, 2009, http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9126947/Russian_cybermilitia_knocks_Kyrgyzstan_offline.

  shutting down 80 percent of the country’s bandwidth for days: Christopher Rhoads, “Kyrgyzstan Knocked Offline,” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310906904622741.html.

  Some believe the attacks were intended: Ibid.; “Kyrgyzstan to Close US Airbase, Washington Says No Plans Made,” Hurriyet (Istanbul), January 17, 2009, http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/10796846.asp?scr=1.

  In late 2009, Google detected unusual traffic within its network: David Drummond, “A New Approach to China,” Google Blog, January 12, 2010, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html.

  Google’s decision to alter its business position in China: David Drummond, “A New Approach to China, an Update,” Google Blog, March 22, 2010, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html.

  Pentagon gave the directive to establish United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM): “U.S. Cyber Command,” U.S. Strategic Command, updated December 2011, http://www.stratcom.mil/factsheets/cyber_command/.

  Robert Gates declared cyberspace to be the “fifth domain” of military operations: Misha Glenny, “Who Controls the Internet?,” Financial Times Magazine (London), October 8, 2010, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3e52897c-d0ee-11df-a426-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nYp7grM6; Susan P. Crawford, “When We Wage Cyberwar, the Whole Web Suffers,” Bloomberg, April 25, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/when-we-wage-cyberwar-the-whole-web-suffers.html.

  new “cyber-industrial complex” somewhere between $80 billion and $150 billion annually: Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “The New Cyber Military-Industrial Complex,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), March 28, 2011, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-new-cyber-military-industrial-complex/article573990.

  A raid on the Egyptian state security building after the country’s: Ibid.; Eli Lake, “British Firm Offered Spy Software to Egypt,” Washington Times, April 25, 2011, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/25/british-firm-offered-spy-software-to-egypt/?page=all#pagebreak.

  Chinese telecom was contacted: WikiLeaks cable, “Subject: STIFLED POTENTIAL: FIBER-OPTIC CABLE LANDS IN TANZANIA, Origin: Embassy Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Cable time: Fri. 4 Sep 2009 04:48 UTC,” http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09DARESSALAAM585.

  Sichuan Hongda announced: Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala, “China Co Signs $3 Bln Tanzania Coal, Iron Deal,” Reuters, September 22, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/tanzania-china-mining-idUSL5E7KM1HU20110922.

  loan agreement with China: “China, Tanzania Sign $1 Bln Gas Pipeline Deal: Report,” Reuters, September 30, 2011, Africa edition, http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE78T08T20110930?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0.

  State-owned enterprises make up 80 percent: “Emerging-Market Multinationals: The Rise of State Capitalism,” Economist, January 21, 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/21543160.

/>   $150 million loan for Ghana’s e-governance venture: Andrea Marshall, “China’s Mighty Telecom Footprint in Africa,” eLearning Africa News Portal, February 21, 2011, http://www.elearning-africa.com/eLA_Newsportal/china%E2%80%99s-mighty-telecom-footprint-in-africa/.

  research hospital in Kenya: “East Africa: Kenya, China in Sh8 Billion University Hospital Deal,” AllAfrica, April 22, 2011, http://allafrica.com/stories/201104250544.html.

  “African Technological City” in Khartoum: John G. Whitesides, “Better Diplomacy, Better Science,” China Economic Review, January 1, 1970, http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/content/better-diplomacy-better-science.

  There are currently four main manufacturers: Opinion of the authors.

  Some refer to this as the upcoming Code War: Michael Riley and Ashlee Vance, “Cyber Weapons: The New Arms Race,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 20, 2011, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/cyber-weapons-the-new-arms-race-07212011.html. As you can see, we did not coin the term “code war.”

  DDoS attacks crippled major government websites: Kim Zetter, “Lawmaker Wants ‘Show of Force’ Against North Korea for Website Attacks,” Wired, July 10, 2009, http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/show-of-force/.

  suggested that the network of attacking computers, or botnet, began in North Korea: Choe Sang-Hun and John Markoff, “Cyberattacks Jam Government and Commercial Web Sites in U.S. and South Korea,” New York Times, July 9, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/technology/10cyber.html?_r=1; Associated Press (AP), “U.S. Officials Eye N. Korea in Cyberattack,” USA Today, July 9, 2009, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-08-hacking-washington-nkorea_N.htm.

  Officials in Seoul directly pointed their fingers at Pyongyang: Choe and Markoff, “Cyberattacks Jam Government and Commercial Web Sites in U.S. and South Korea,” New York Times, July 9, 2009.

  Republican lawmaker demanded: Zetter, “Lawmaker Wants ‘Show of Force’ Against North Korea for Website Attacks,” Wired, July 10, 2009.

  analysts concluded they had no evidence that North Korea or any other state was involved: Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press (AP), “US Largely Ruling Out North Korea in 2009 Cyber Attacks,” USA Today, July 6, 2010, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2010-07-06-nkorea-cyber-attacks_N.htm.

  analyst in Vietnam had earlier said that the attacks originated in the United Kingdom: Martyn Williams, “UK, Not North Korea, Source of DDOS Attacks, Researcher Says,” IDG News Service and Network World, July 14, 2009, http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/071409-uk-not-north-korea-source.html?ap1=rcb.

  South Koreans insisted: “N. Korean Ministry Behind July Cyber Attacks: Spy Chief,” Yonhap News, October 30, 2009, http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2009/10/30/0401000000AEN20091030002200315.HTML.

  semiconductors and motor vehicles to jet-propulsion technology: Michael Riley and Ashlee Vance, “Inside the Chinese Boom in Corporate Espionage,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, March 15, 2012, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-14/inside-the-chinese-boom-in-corporate-espionage.

  England’s East India Company hired a Scottish botanist: “Famous Cases of Corporate Espionage,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, September 20, 2011, http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110919/famous-cases-of-corporate-espionage#slide3.

  Chinese couple in Michigan: Ed White, Associated Press (AP), “Shanshan Du, Ex-GM Worker, Allegedly Tried to Sell Hybrid Car Secrets to Chinese Companies,” Huffington Post, July 23, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/shanshan-du-ex-gm-worker_n_656894.html.

  Chinese employee of Valspar Corporation: “Cyber Espionage: An Economic Issue,” China Caucus (blog), Congressional China Caucus, November 9, 2011, http://forbes.house.gov/chinacaucus/blog/?postid=268227; Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace, Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009–2011, Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, (October 2011), 3, http://www.ncix.gov/publications/reports/fecie_all/Foreign_Economic_Collection_2011.pdf.

  DuPont chemical researcher: “Economic Espionage,” Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, accessed October 22, 2012, http://www.ncix.gov/issues/economic/index.php.

  “The basic premise is that when you have a network disease”: Craig Mundie in discussion with the authors, November 2011.

  In Mundie’s vision: Ibid.

  10 million lines of code: DARPA, “DARPA Increases Top Line Investment in Cyber Research by 50 Percent over next Five Years,” news release, November 7, 2011, http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/11/07.aspx; Spencer Ackerman, “Darpa Begs Hackers: Secure Our Networks, End ‘Season of Darkness,’ ” Danger Room (blog), Wired, November 7, 2011, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/darpa-hackers-cybersecurity/.

  “We went after the technological shifts”: Regina Dugan, in discussion with the authors, July 2012.

  They brought together cybersecurity experts: Cheryl Pellerin, American Forces Press Service, “DARPA Goal for Cybersecurity: Change the Game,” U.S. Air Force, December 20, 2010, http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123235799.

  CHAPTER 4

  THE FUTURE OF REVOLUTION

  countries coming online have incredibly young populations: See low Internet penetration in 2011 for Ethiopia, Pakistan and the Philippines in “Percentage of Individuals Using the Internet,” International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ICT Data and Statistics (IDS), accessed October 16, 2012, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/, and young populations for those countries as of 2011 in “Mid-Year Population by Five Year Age Groups and Sex—Custom Region—Ethiopia, Pakistan, Philippines,” U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base, accessed October 16, 2012, http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/region.php.

  women were able to play a much greater role: Courtney C. Radsch, “Unveiling the Revolutionaries: Cyberactivism and the Role of Women in the Arab Uprisings,” James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, May 17, 2012; Jeff Falk, “Social Media, Internet Allowed Young Arab Women to Play a Central Role in Arab Spring,” May 24, 2012, Rice University, News and Media, http://news.rice.edu/2012/05/24/social-media-and-the-internet-allowed-young-arab-women-to-play-a-central-role-in-the-arab-spring-uprisings-new-rice-study-says-2/; Women and the Arab Spring: Taking Their Place?, International Federation for Human Rights, accessed November 4, 2012, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201206/20120608ATT46510/20120608ATT46510EN.pdf; Lauren Bohn, “Women and the Arab Uprisings: 8 ‘Agents of Change’ to Follow,” CNN, February 3, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/03/world/africa/women-arab-uprisings/index.html.

  small groups of protesters nearly every morning: Ministers in the transitional government in Tripoli in discussion with the authors, January 2012.

  Al Jazeera English was quick to report on the number of protester deaths: “Fresh Protests Erupt in Syria,” Al Jazeera, last updated April 8, 2011, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/04/201148104927711611.html.

  Al Jazeera Arabic website did not: David Pollock, “Al Jazeera: One Organization, Two Messages,” Washington Institute, Policy Analysis, April 28, 2011, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/aljazeera-one-organization-two-messages.

  the disparity was due to the Arabic station’s political deference to Iran: Ibid.

  they acknowledged similar grievances: Activists from the Jasmine Revolution in discussion with the authors, January 2012.

  Twitter account started by a twenty-something graduate student: Stephan Faris, “Meet the Man Tweeting Egypt’s Voices to the World,” Time, February 1, 2011, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045489,00.html.

  posted updates about the protests: Ibid.

  @Jan25voices Twitter handle was a major conduit of information: Ibid.

  Andy Carvin, who curated one of the most important streams of information: Andy Carvin, interview by Robert Siegel, “The Revolution Will Be Tweeted,” NPR, February 21, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/02/21/1339436
04/The-Revolution-Will-Be-Tweeted.

  they had formed the National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi: “Anti-Gaddafi Figures Say Form National Council,” Reuters, February 27, 2011, Africa edition, http://af.reuters.com/article/idAFWEB194120110227.

  prominent opposition figures, regime defectors, a former army official, academics, attorneys, politicians and business leaders: Dan Murphy, “The Members of Libya’s National Transitional Council,” Christian Science Monitor, September 2, 2011, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/0902/The-members-of-Libya-s-National-Transitional-Council; David Gritten, “Key Figures in Libya’s Rebel Council,” BBC, August 25, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12698562.

  Citizens continued to protest the government: “Tunisia’s Leaders Resign from Ruling Party,” NPR, January 20, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/01/20/133083002/tunisias-leaders-resign-from-ruling-party; Christopher Alexander, “Après Ben Ali: Déluge, Democracy, or Authoritarian Relapse?,” Middle East Channel (blog), Foreign Policy, January 24, 2011, http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/24/apres_ben_ali_deluge_democracy_or_authoritarian_relapse.

  “victim of the ministry of the interior”: conversation with Tunisian prime minister Hamadi Jebali, January 2012.

  spent fourteen years in prison: David D. Kirkpatrick, “Opposition in Tunisia Finds Chance for Rebirth,” New York Times, January 20, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/world/africa/21islamist.html?pagewanted=all; Tarek Amara and Mariam Karouny, “Tunisia Names New Government, Scraps Secret Police,” Reuters, March 8, 2011, http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-55387920110307?irpc=984.

  “It is hard to imagine de Gaulles and Churchills appealing”: Henry Kissinger in discussion with the authors, December 2011.