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NATO: Cyber terrorism "as dangerous as missile attack"

Date: March 10, 2008

NATO: Cyber terrorism "as dangerous as missile attack"

Source: Software.silicon.com, by Nick Heath

NATO's cyber defence chief has warned that computer-based terrorism poses the same threat to national security as a missile attack. Suleyman Anil, head of NATO Computer Incident Response Capability Co-ordination Center, said a determined cyber attack on a country's online infrastructure would be "practically impossible to stop".

Nations need to focus on improving their ability to quickly recover and get systems back online, an area in which nearly all countries were currently "weak", he told delegates at the e-crime congress in London.

Anil said the cyber attacks on Estonia last year which brought down key financial and state systems had demonstrated how cyber terrorism could take down national infrastructure with "very serious consequences". He said: "It stands together with air missile defence and the global fight against terrorism."

NATO will set out an action plan for dealing with a similar infrastructure attack on one of its members at a state summit in Bucharest next month.

-- Source/continues: http://www.crime-research.org/news/03.10.2008/3241/