OECD warns of cyber attacks

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned in a report that attacks on computer systems now have the potential to cause global catastrophe, but only in combination with another disaster.

The OECD project was looking at "Future Global Shocks" such as a failure of the world's financial system or a large-scale pandemic.

It said that there were a few single "cyber events" that could cause a global shock, such as an attack on one of the technical protocols upon which the Internet depends or a large solar flare that wipes out key communications components.

What worried the OECD was that there might be a combination of events such as coordinated cyber attacks or a cyber incident occurring during another disaster.

Professor Peter Sommer of the London School of Economics and Dr Ian Brown of Britain's Oxford University told Reuters that it is possible to create a 'perfect storm' but without George Clooney, which must be a good thing.

The OECD study claims that that cyber attacks will be ubiquitous in future wars. However it thinks that a true "cyberwar" fought almost entirely through computer systems is unlikely.

Many critical systems are well protected and the effects of attacks are difficult to predict, and so could backfire on the assailants, the report said.

Brown did not think it is a good idea to adopt a military approach to cyber security. Most good cyber targets are in the private sector, he said. µ