WarSclerotic

Boaz Dolev, the man who protected Israel’s government websites from hacker onslaughts for 13 years from 1996 to 2009, shrugs at the foreign reports that Israel (or the United States ) was responsible for the Stuxnet worm attack in Iran that assaulted the nuclear power plant in Bushehr.

	Boaz Dolev.
	Photo by: Tess Scheflan / Jini

Today the data security manager at a startup that engages in online auctions, Dolev shares his opinion that whatever the situation in Iran, we are safe. Over in Iran, officials said at the start of the week that Stuxnet bored through staff computers at Bushehr, but hadn’t affected major systems. That said, the plant, Iran’s first nuclear power facility, will only come on line in early 2011, several months after its initial launch date.

“Once in a while some worm gets chosen and turned into a celebrity,” Dolev says. “The summer vacation is over and I guess people are looking for some cause celebre. Trojan horse and worm attacks happen all the time,” he says, referring to two common forms of “malware” – malicious software – which means, Internet hacker attack. “I suspect the sources of the reports are data security people looking for publicity. The press likes to present things melodramatically.”

TheMarker: How common are worm attacks against sovereign nations?

Dolev: “They happen, obviously. It happens every hour of every day. Last year the Chinese managed to steal information on Gmail e-mail addresses from Google. Cyber war exists. The more the world hooks up to the Internet, the more computerized it gets, the more the information can be stolen. Take for instance the case of Apple and its iPhone cellular device. Apple invested pots of money in developing security systems that would prevent hacker attacks on the phone, but it didn’t work. There are hundreds of hackers doing nothing but working out how to break through Apple’s systems. The way things are today it’s impossible to assure 100% safety.”

Central utility systems, such as water, gas and electricity, are all computerized. You say they cannot be protected 100%? Shouldn’t we be worried?

“You can’t sleep in peace. Undoubtedly, more and more resources and infrastructures rely on computer systems these days. The question is whether we want to go back to the pre-technological era. I would think not. We have to acknowledge the reality that in the present technological age, technology leaps ahead every few years and the amount of threats also grows. We need to be aware of this and people need to prepare accordingly. There are means of protection.”

You protected the Israeli government’s websites for 13 years. What did you experience?

“I saw a lot of attacks against the Israeli government sites. Some were similar to what’s happening now. I experienced a range of attacks. The State of Israel is constantly under [cyber] attack.”

That’s why the Stuxnet worm attack on the Iranian nuclear facility is a non-event, in Dolev’s view. It’s the worm of the day, he says.

That said, Stuxnet is a relatively new worm. Its purpose is to spy on and then reprogram Windows-based industrial systems, which makes it fairly unique. Most worms aim lower. Put otherwise, it is hostile software that seizes control over industrial computers by attacking supervisory control and data acquisition systems.

Last week Eugene Kaspersky, one of the founders of Russia-based data security company Kaspersky Lab, predicted that Stuxnet is just the first of its breed and will trigger a new arms race, this one in virtual reality. Speaking at a symposium in Germany, Kaspersky called the 1990s the “decade of cybervandals,” the 2000s “a decade of cybercriminals” and today the age of cyber-war and online terrorism.

Indeed, Iran is far from alone: Stuxnet attacks have been registered everywhere in the world. Apparently it’s been around since mid-2009.

Dolev acknowledges that it had been difficult to protect the Israeli government websites. “It takes a lot of resources and a lot of responsibility,” he says. “You can’t relax. Happily, the government understands that and invests in data security.”

He doesn’t buy the theory that the next war will be conducted entirely in cyberspace. Flesh-and-blood battle will always be with us. Yet the dangers of online attack cannot be discounted, he urges: The United States and Europeans are forming cyber-attack centers, and for good reason.

Are you worried about the computer threats that Israel faces?

“I’m not worried and I’m not pessimistic. I have been aware of the threats for years. They exist. They haven’t changed. I’m always optimistic. Technology improves but the dangers grow. We just have to stay aware.”