By Kevin Coleman -- Defense Tech Cyberwarefare Correspondent
As many of you may remember a short time ago the G20 was struck by a cyber attack. The G20 was formed back in 1999 to give developing nations more of a voice in matters related to the global economy and other major issues. Just recently the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the target of cyber attacks. The IMF is an organization that was set up in 1944 and designed to lower trade barriers between countries and to stabilize currencies by monitoring the foreign exchange systems of member countries. Combined, these two organizations span 187 countries and play a critical role in the global economy.
It is believed that those targeting these organizations did so due to their prominence on the world stage. Both cyber attacks were labeled espionage after it was discovered that the hackers copied a substantial number of files. It is believed that the hackers wanted to take advantage of the inside data about financial activities to leverage the information for financial gains. Many point to China as being behind the cyber espionage but little evidence has been made public.
Incidents such as these are what have many calling for a new organization to be established with the sole mission of investigating these events. Its investigative efforts would include the massive challenge of managing the flow of information about cyber threats and conduct/coordination of cyber incidents since they typically are routed through one of more intermediary countries. However, cooperation among governments is the key here, not a new organization!
