Cyber War

"I'll be hacked"

As someone who studied the Cold War era, it's been fascinating reading the developments of the new 'cyber war' facing the British government. An article last week made close parallels between the two circumstances and the sheer pettiness of current events seems to match up with previous antics rather nicely (recently British officials asked politely if China and Russia wouldn't mind cutting out the 'coordinated cyber attacks' if at all possible... I'm sure the request was noted.)

Whilst online security has always been a talking point, a virtual Cold War is hard to imagine but you can see how some things could play out. Take the Cuban Missile Crisis for example:

- Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev adds Fidel Castro as an associate on Linkedin and the pair exchange business cards.

- After talking on Skype they decide they can rather help each other out with a strategic placement of Nuclear weapons. Khrushchev pays for some Cuban land via paypal to speed up the transaction and get moving.

- Khrushchev changes his Facebook status to 'Nikita is constructing nuclear weapons in Cuba' and top friend Fiedel Castro indicates that he 'likes this'.

- American President John F. Kennedy checks Google maps to see that, surely enough, ground work is being laid down for such a plan. He asks Jeeves what to do but with no luck decides to Twitter his naval defences and get them to form a blockade around Cuba.

- A war seems imminent until Khrushchev sends Kennedy an e-card apologising for his actions before setting up a direct messenger account with the American Chief to stop any future misunderstandings. A few days later the pair post pictures on Flickr highlighting their new found friendship and Castro is forced to sell the construction leftovers on Ebay.


Whilst this may not necessarily be how things progress this time around, it will indeed be absorbing to see how things transpire. What's certain, is that the battle to reign the online field is further proof of just how important a weapon the Internet really is.

To keep track online visit www.artesiansolutions.com