Cyber war may be hyped, but it’s not cyber peace

Referring to an OECD (Organisation For Economic Cooperation and Development) study, which asserts that the risk of cyber war has been hyped, MWR InfoSecurity counters that it could encourage users to become more complacent. Ian Shaw, managing director of MWR InfoSecurity, says that the report criticises the use of the term 'cyber war', which is now being used more frequently than 'cyber attacks'. He contends that, while 'cyber wars' may not be helpful in the categorisation of attacks, equally the Cold War was not clear about the conflict with Russia, "but was used to illustrate the fact that it was not a time of peace". Shaw warns that, either way, cyber attacks are increasing "on an almost daily basis". And he adds: "While these attacks are normally launched on a one-off basis, there is no doubt that there is a persistent threat to … enterprise information security." For Shaw, the problem is that many organisations are still not taking the threat levels seriously enough and safeguarding the information that they hold. "There is a clear threat to the economy, as the OECD commented in this and a prior report. Malicious attacks are a threat to the Internet economy. As the internet economy plays a greater role in the overall economy the risks need to be carefully monitored," insists Shaw.