Anticipated threats of wide-scale attacks on the Internet
during the Iraq war failed to materialise, the US government's
cyber security chief revealed today.White House Security Advisor Howard Schmidt
said that increased vigilance by both businesses and government in
the run-up to the war had kept cyber attacks to the minimum.
With the exception of limited
denial-of-service attacks, which were easily dealt with, there were
no major cyber security incidents, said Schmidt, speaking at the
RSA conference in San Francisco.
"One of the biggest issues we were concerned
about was whether there would be adequate defences against
hactivist activity. There was a clear recognition that we would be
watching for this, and people were much more diligent than they
have been in the past," he said.
Any headline event raises the risks of cyber
attacks, said Schmidt, but organisations prepared themselves for
the war, by ensuring that patches were updated, and increasing
their vigilance.
There were web defacement attempts, but they
were caught and stopped, and internet service providers were able
to deal with denial-of-service attacks before they had an
impact.
Schmidt denied that the threat of
cyber-terrorism during the war had been exaggerated, saying it was
largely good preparation that kept its impact to a minimum.
RSA: US must stay vigilant after 9/11 >>