GAINS: Geopolitics and Internet Security

Mon, 11/23/2015 - 11:01 -- pottol

Brief summary of conference held in Sapienza University on Friday 25 September 2015

http://www.gains-project.eu/conferences/geopolitics-and-internet-security/

Annual WorkShop

Maurizio Goretti (CINECA)

http://www.gains-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Goretti-Annual-Gains-Conference.pdf

Round Table (Douzet, Salamatian, Kaufmann)

Issue

Douzet

Salamatian

Kaufmann

Classification

Ordering information for putting only “lower” stuff on Internet

Internet is not a CI in itself. It is critical for companies and their business

Critical Infrastructure

It could be the case to propose some standard for provide limitation about the use of Internet for Critical Infrastructure

Cyber-Attacks

more responsible behaviours

Trasparency is completely opaque:

  • no regulation

  • specific contracts (no standard)

  • no registration (no report)

Akamai is doing something important with Prolexic reports

Malicious Behaviour

It should be integrated in SW and Architecture

Services are optimized for business: regulations are needed to establish requirements and specification in order to aiding people

 

Geopolitical Risk Analysis of Euro-Asia communication

Kavé Salamatian – Universitè de Savoie (WP1 Leader)

http://www.gains-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Salamatian-IXXI-Enregistre%CC%81-automatiquement.compressed.pdf

Conceptual Network:

  1. Cyberspace split in Geography (embedded)

  2. CyberSpace is no dependent on Geography

  3. CyberSpace has a space on its own

e.g. Euro-Asia Map

Risk Analysis:

  1. Reliability

  2. Bandwith

  3. Interruption (cable cut from states in the middle)

3 paths:

Path

Reliability

Bandwidth

Interruption

Countries

Land

Pros: fast to solve issues

Cons: expensive, low-band

Cons: Mafia Risk (independent from Government)

Pros: Only 1 crossing country

Russia

Maritime

Cons: cable in the sea

cheap (high bandwidth, 90% traffic)

Cons: Multiple countries

Red Sea,

Indian Ocean

China Sea

Mixed (Land-Maritime)

Cons: fear

low band

Cons: Multiple countries, different approach

Turkey

Saudi Arabia

Persia

India Ocean

China

 

Topogaphy

  1. Apple, Google

  2. AS Graph: no valid distance information. Anamorphe: network neighbours != geographic neighbours

  3. Spectral Techniques: metric = bandwidth; data-mining

CyberSpace:

  • new space

  • new movements (military strategic)

Geopolitics and the Internet

Frederick Douzet – Institut Français de Géopolitique – (Advisory board member)

No conference act.

Internet is gaining strategical part in every aspect of our life:

  • when: early ‘90s

  • how: more democracy (info sharing)

  • what: issues

    • conflict of reputation

    • cyber attack -> conflict

    • information warfare (by Governments -> Geopolitical context)

Consequences: strategy for transnational:

  • Cooperation for sharing information

  • Control of “cyber territory”

Representation: ideas, strategies, goals. NO action is “casual” in Internet since it has (deep) effects.

History

Year

Space

Users

What

Threats

1994

new independent space (Incredible Optimism)

Few millions company

Open Source

Self Reputation

Absense of Control (in the architecture)

hacktivist

cyber crime

2005

e-commerce

half a billion company

Threats / Opportunities

surveillance

permissions

control and flag in

Cyber Defense

Digital Combat

2015

Economy Glabalisation

billions individuals

smaller individuals

fraud

information disclosure (e.g. Snowden)

Deep Web

Dark Web

 

2 Ways of Risks (new threat, global one like warming up). To counterfeating, It needs cooperation, partnership (internet is driven by private company) and it leads to contamination

Way

Actor

Means

Goals

Critical Infrastructure

Cyber-Attack

Private

Survellaince

Systemic approach

reinforcing national info system

not public classified information

developing offensive tools

Espionage

Public

Intelligence

reinforcing national info system

not public classified information

developing offensive tools

Agreement: do not attack each-other

 

Geopolitical Impact of the Internet Routing Protocols

Antonio Villani (Sapienza)

http://www.gains-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Mancini-Villani-gains.compressed.pdf

BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)

The Autonomous Systems (ASs) forward information about routing for reaching out the wanted IP (provided by IRR: Internet Regional Registry).

Not all ASs are equal. Security Issues:

  • NO Control Mechanisms in place (e.g. Authentication with cryptography)

  • Network Device outside the proper operators (e.g. China Telecom has router in Frankfourt)

 

Incident

Type

seconds

hours

days

Malfunction

  • Houston-UK (3/2013): BT used Vega (Ukrain operator) making hops there

Hijack

  • China Telecom: Russia path accross Germany

Leaking

  • Leaking Glass (trace-route): there are vulnerable applications (CVE2014-3927) allowing to execute arbitrary commands. (DefCon 22, 2014)

  • Hacking Team: invoices, emails, deals. Santrex (8/2013) IPs declared by Aruba (for controlling data-flows to BotNet). Santrex performs “Bullet-Proof hosting”

  • Turkish Telecom (3/2014): changing Android App DNS from 8.8.8.8

 

Because no cryptography in BGP, it is not possible to identify the attacker.

Control-Plane vs Data-Plane

Plane-Type

Control

Data

Too

Best-Path

TraceRoute

distance metrics

SpellCheck

ASs addition (75%)

ASs deletion (10%)

ASs difference (15%)

 

Internet is the land of nobody, it resembles far-west.

The State of Internet

Christian Kaufmann (Akamai)

http://www.gains-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/AKamai-20150925_gains.pdf

Akamai helps in distributing content worldwide.

Connections:

  • Connection Speeds

  • Bandwidth (e.g. IT 6.4 Mbps, DE 24 Mbps, SE 80 Mbps: the importance of Infrastructure!)

  • Security Aspects

Security (DDoS)

Acquisition of Prolexic (the company that is producing the only one available report providing worldwide data):

  • BotNets

  • Malware

  • Competitors

Business is the Target.

Most Damage: Gaming, Travels.

Location: targets and sources are in the same country, usually in the same city (because performance issues).

Security (Hijacking)

Destruction of Connectivity (Country not going outside) is voluntary, by Government lead (Gabon, COngo, Iraq, etc).