Military Digital Complex

State of Security have a nice post about the 'Post-Zeus/Stuxnet World'. In a year that saw what many believe was the first real government created 'cyber-weapon' or 'weaponized malware' that did more than just knock a site offline, but destroyed physical infrastructure.
Combine this with events such as an arms manufacturer buying an Australian security company that (among other things) performs penetration tests and the future certainly looks..interesting.

More over Military Industrial Complex and hello Military Digital Complex?

This is nothing that was unexpected, the logical progression of military might is from the physical to the digital realm. For a smaller, less technologically developed nation, striking with weaponized malware at your larger more advanced and more techonolgy-dependant foe (especially if no one can prove it came from you!) has to be attractive.

Any security professional knows defence is hard. An attacker only has to find that one weak point, while the defender has to protect and monitor the whole perimeter. Unlike the castles of old, digital perimeters look more like the Great Wall in scale and are constantly changing.


The bad guys are smart, and they learn. The complexity and effectiveness of the likes of Stuxnet will have been noticed and will be part of the next generation of crimeware. As Government or Military contractors develop increasingly weaponized malware, the techniques and methods they use will filter into the ranks of the black hats and criminals - just as advances in military technology have always flowed into civilian life. Radar? TCP/IP? The Internet?

2011 is shaping up to be an interesting year...

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