The Cyberterror Threat

March 28, 2008

Candidates for public office are highly focused on physical threats to the U.S., say USC computer security experts, while digital security — both physical and electronic — is barely mentioned.

This is particularly true at a time when jumpy and frightened markets have seen giant upswings and downswings, along with failures by brand-name institutions, notes B. Clifford Neuman, director of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Center for Computer Systems Security and one of the developers of the widely used Kerberos security system.

The U.S. has a complicated banking system dependent on digital information, requiring second-by-second updating of the status of trillions of dollars. And there are terrorists who have mastery of sophisticated information technology knowledge — often acquired in Western universities — and are well supplied with funds to purchase additional expertise and resources.

Is the American or global financial system vulnerable to a massive cyberattack that could inflict severe and lasting damage?

“Given the reach of botnets and malware today, massive attacks are quite possible, and I am surprised we have not seen them as of yet,” Neuman says. “And, yes, our defenses could be better.”

“The combination of physical and cyber threats is even more alarming,” adds Terry Benzel, who has testified before Congress on cybersecurity, and who serves with Neuman as co-director of the DETERlab testbed, which evaluates potential Internet-based cyberthreats. “In addition to software attacks, terrorists can potentially damage physical infrastructure in such a way as create cascading series of cyber infrastructure outages that would undermine citizen confidence. The financial markets, manufacturing sectors and transportation sectors could all be susceptible to these sorts of attacks.”

USC Resources

The University of Southern California is home to the Office of Homeland Security’s National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), whose mission is to improve our nation’s security through the development of advanced models and tools for the evaluation of the risks, costs and consequences of terrorism and to guide economically viable investments in homeland security. CREATE is headed by Director Detlof von Winterfeldt, an expert on quantifying risks with the aim of determining whether protective measures are excessive and counterproductive, or inadequate.