Cyber Warfare and Pakistan

The next Pearl Harbour could very well be a cyber-attack.
(Leon Panetta, former Director of the CIA)

Many eyebrows were raised when the former CIA director made this statement back in 2011, with the critiques arguing that no way cyber warfare can ever become as deadly as the attack on pearl harbour during the World War Two. A few years later, this statement does not look much illogical now does it? From the cyber attack on Estonia to the series of cyber attacks against Georgia from Russia, from the Stuxnet attack on Iranian Nuclear facilities to the cyber attack on US national power grid, from the attack on Israel’s stock exchange to the recent hacking of Sony Corporation from North Korea; it is pretty evident that the world we live in is no longer a safe place. The security and peace of the world is being threatened by a unique form of warfare that is cyber warfare.
In our daily lives, no one can deny the ever increasing significance of cyberspace.

Cyberspace, the new battlefield across the globe, is different from the previous forms of warfare as it involves tools and techniques more detrimental than traditional mans of warfare and posed a massive threat to the world. Pakistan in particular, has been at the receiving end of some deadly cyber attacks in recent years. Pakistan was already engaged in sea, land and air warfare with rival India for years, and now to make things worse, the two neighbouring countries are facing each other in a completely different domain, cyberspace. India has cleverly taken advantage of their superior and rapidly growing technological industry coupled with the help from Israel, and is gaining superiority in this new form of warfare against Pakistan. In 2010, during the month of August, Indian government took their first step towards creating their own cyber warrior, a term used internationally to describe the cyber force or capability of a country. The major motive behind that was to spy on the classified data of Pakistan and China by hacking into the computer systems of these two countries.

Cyber warfare is fought using various techniques and tactics. The most basic of those techniques include cyber espionage, cyber sabotage, date gathering, denial of service attacks, attacks on sensitive institutions’ networks, etc. Pakistan has been a victim of these attacks in recent times, prompting the government and armed forces of the country to put more attention towards this issue. Efforts are already into play in order to beef up county’s cyber defence but there are a number of constraints that are slowing down the progress. For starters, unlike India who has been collaborating with Israel in order to build its cyber strategy, Pakistan has been unable to formulate a productive cyber strategy that can make the defence of the country cyber proof.

Ever since its independence, India and Pakistan have had confronted each other on a number of occasions in the domains of land, sea and air warfare. Now to make things worse, the two neighbouring countries are now facing each other in the virtual arena as well. Cyber warfare can be said as fifth generation warfare fought in cyberspace. And India, taking advantage of its relatively advanced technological industry, is rapidly building up its cyber forces. Cyber Warrior is the term used across the globe for the cyber capability (both offensive and defensive), and India is rapidly strengthening its Cyber Warrior thanks largely to Israel for its unconditional help to India in the area of cyber security.

India is very serious in its attempt to gain the superiority in cyberspace. Former Indian Naval Chief, Admiral Suresh Mehta stressed the importance of taking an edge when it comes to cyber security in following words while talking to StarPost when he was still in charge.Although Indian authorities have cited that their Cyber Warrior is to stop the cyber attacks from China, but history is witness that India has always used its case against China as an excuse to strengthen up its security and take sympathy from the world powers. And in reality, India seeks to deprecate Pakistan and its nuclear program and is investing heavily on its Cyber Warrior to gain an unchallenged superiority against Pakistan in cyberspace.

A number of cyber scuffles have already taken place between the two countries in recent years. In 2008, some hackers from India claiming to have no association with the government of India, defaced the website of Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Government of Pakistan. In response, hackers from Pakistan, also again with no backing of the government, defaced some Indian websites. That response from Pakistan prompted India to think outside of the box and the authorities decided to build up country’s Cyber Warrior. And thanks to Israel, India managed to achieve that feat within years.

According to former Indian Naval Chief, admiral Suresh Mehta, India has massive cyber ambitions; “The Indian Armed Forces are increasingly investing in networked operations, both singly and a joint fashion. We cannot, therefore, afford to be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Information Technology is our country’s known strength and it would be in our interest to leverage this strength in developing a formidable ‘offensive’ and ‘defensive’ cyber warfare capability. Harnessing the gene pool available in academia, private industry and the younger generation of talented individuals is imperative.”

Israel is considered to have the deadliest Cyber Warrior in the world today. United States although have the best cyber security overall, but their cyber strategy is more focused on protecting the country from cyber crimes rather than launching a cyber attack against some entity. Israel however, has reportedly allocated billions of dollars to its Cyber Warrior, whose major task is to use the tactics of espionage, sabotage and gather information from the sensitive institutions of Pakistan and other countries that can pose a threat to Israel in some manner, with the help of India.

Additionally, Pakistan is also facing a major serious threat from the non-state actors against which Pakistan have launched a major military operation in the tribal region of the country. Those elements have the capacity to launch a cyber attack against Pakistan since Al Qaeda has already launched a number of cyber attacks on the United States in recent years. And if a country like United States that boasts the world’s best cyber defence, is vulnerable to cyber attacks from these non-state actors, then a country like Pakistan, which is relatively new to this, needs to be extra careful against cyber terrorists.

Pakistan cannot and should not wait on making a decision on its cyber strategy as it is the need of the hour. Just like the nuclear tests by Pakistan in 1998 created a nuclear deterrence, a cyber warrior is the need of Pakistan right now in order to create cyber deterrence against India. Yes, there are some serious issues and constraints, but nothing that cannot be overcome. International security practitioners have use the term “Virtual Armageddon” for a likely cyber war in near future, and Pakistan must be ready for what is yet to come.

By Jibran Ali

(The author is a PhD Scholar in the field of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and is also teaching as a visiting faculty member at the Islamic International University Islamabad. His area of research is Cyber Security and Warfare as well as Hybrid Warfare)