National Security
Could spam techniques pose a threat?

Spam emails may be innocuous as they seem but the techniques involved in spamming could deal a disruptive blow, if not destructive, in the context of military electronic warfare (MEW).

For instance, a denial-of-service (DoS) attack can overload servers with excessive requests and a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack hijacks computers to send out huge amount of spam.

In an email statement, a UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesperson replied: “MOD is fully aware of the issues associated with denial-of-service overloads and, like all large modern organisations, takes steps to protect its business continuity.”

To further avoid exterior attacks, “MOD does use isolated large area networks (LANs) with our own web-based properties – intranets.

“MOD has a long history of ensuring the security of information no matter what medium is used to store or transport it. These range from robust processes and training to cutting edge research delivering understanding of the issues and an ability to provide technology solutions.”

Malicious spam attacks causing government security crises are no science fiction, according to Robert Weiping Chang, who had been head of Information Management Office (IMO), National Police Agency in Taiwan for seven years.

“They (malicious spam attacks) can definitely be a threat to national security. During my term in IMO, spam emails disguising as one of our government bodies were sent out to other departments. What was destructive was the combination of viruses and Trojan horses,” he said.

According to a press release by National Information and Communication Security Taskforce, Taiwan, the above attack in 2003 “involved more than 700 IP addresses in 32 countries around the world.”