Cyber-­terrorism as a threat to national security in the Arctic region

A few people had a chanse to predict how decisive changes in the society would change the ratio of the mili--‐ tary confrontation in the world and even the nature of the war.The real shock is more than just the appearance of the new machines. It promises the restructorisation of all the human relationships and roles.

E.Toffler. «The Schock of the Future»

Technological progress and the development of the society in the late of the XX century, opened to the world the unimaginable possibilities and opportunities that are to the beginning of the XXI century led to the entry of the modern civilization in a whole new era, which was de--‐ scribed by the American sociologist and futurist Alvin Toffler as the information society. Such co--‐ indigenous changes, of course, lead to the new problems, social conflicts and to the global prob--‐ lems. The humanity will face with them in the XXI century.

Ubiquitous computing of the society displays information to the next level when it be--‐ comes as the fundamental element of the future wars and of the cyber--‐terrorism, as a new inter--‐ national threat. The use of computer technologies by the international organizations in the man--‐ agement of the state apparatus, and other elements of the modern infrastructure, and a shift in the methods of computer control [1] led to the emergence of the strategic kiber objects, which can be attacked for the terrorist purposes, which is the main reason of the increasing incidences and of the growing threat of the cyber--‐terrorism in the world.

In addition, the main problematic themes are the problematic issues: the difficulty of the process of the identifying the source of the attack and determine its location, and proof of cyber--‐ crime and the presentation of the evidence to the accused, the definition of the legal responsibil--‐ ity for a crime in cyberspace. These reasons are related to the specifics of the cyberspace, the lack of the legislation and the regulatory framework governing the relationships in cyberspace and the legal classification of anti--‐fledged attacks in cyberspace.

The problem of the emergence of the terrorism in the cyberspace is fairly new. On this ba--‐ sis, in the scientific and in the practice--‐management environment has not yet formed an approach to its study and to the theoretical structuring. However, increasing the number of the attacks on information in the cyberspace and the attempts at compromising and damaging the information infrastructure, significantly more frequent in recent years, is to transform cyberspace into one of the areas of the strategic interest to countries [2], whose special importance is in the absence of any legal and physical protection.

In turn, the increase of the potential conflict between Russia and other countries in the Arctic region provides the possibility of cyber weapons to the scrapping of the Information Infra--‐ structure, kidnapping and intercept data, including the strategically important assignment.

Military and strategic importance of the Arctic region consists in its potential usefulness for the large number of the military operations and maneuvers due to climate change [3]. The strate--‐ gic potential of the Arctic region is recognized by the military and political circles in the United States, Russia and other countries.

In "Principles of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Arctic for the period up to 2020 and beyond," stated the need for creating the troops (forces), of the general purpose, and maintain the necessary combat capabilities of troops [4]. In addition, the USA in its Presidential Directive on National Security (NSPD--‐66/HSPD--‐25), dedicated to the exploration of the Arctic, said the preservation of the global mobility of USA military and civilian vessels and aircraft throughout the Arctic region [5], which is dangerous for the Russian Arctic. In addition, "the alliance marked the Arctic zone of its interests"[6].

A special strategic importance of the region entails the possibility of militarization. In this respect, Russia attaches great importance to the development of the Arctic is non--‐military, as well as protect it from military activity [7]. However, the views of USA and NATO on this issue with Rus--‐ sia diverge somewhat. At the request of the former Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, "taking into account climate change, changing conditions in the Arctic, many NATO members are already predicting that the Northwest Passage will become to work a year--‐round. The ise will open, they melt, and so definitely NATO will apppear in the Arctic. They planned it long ago. May--‐ be there will appear in very bad conditions American PRO --‐ on the decks of this ship "[8].

Technical characteristics of the missile defense systems imply their full management through the computer technologies, so it is a missile defense system to be a significant target for cyber attacks. Is to say that today there is a possibility of breaking and violation of these systems cyberterrorists [9]. If that happens, the country, which will be made the attack remain vulnerable to the forces of the enemy, sanctioned this attack. Therefore we can say that in the future the struggle for the Arctic between Russia and the USA will go into the cyberspace.

In addition it is important to note that the other object of cyber attacks in the Arctic may be the control of the modern drilling rig, which is also carried out by means of computer technolo--‐ gy. The instalation it in the electronic control system installation may lead to the equipment fail--‐ ure, significant economic harm to the country, as well as lead to a flood of extracted raw materials and disruption of the ecological situation in the region.

We can suggest that this type of the incident can be used by some countries against Russia. The main argument of the USA against the Russian exploration and the development of the Arctic is unecological way of life [10]. United States through the introduction of stringent environmental standards is trying to focus some of the political powers of control over the development of Arctic resources in their hands [11]. Thus, hacking and disabling of rigs offshore Russian Arctic and the subsequent oil spill and pollution of the waters can be used as a falsified argument in support of the U.S. consumer and the predatory attitude of Russia to the Arctic region.

Based on the foregoing, there is a natural need for the legal and physical protection of the strategic cyber systems of Russia. It is gratifying that today the Defense Ministry began to develop the concept of cyber Armed Forces, as well as to the creation of Cyber Command to ensure infor--‐ mation security of the Russian army [12]. Therefore, for the sustainable development of the coun--‐ try in the future, which would allow it to planned the development of the Arctic and its right place place in the strategic plane of cyberspace, we need a strong cyber army, as well as protection against attacks from other countries.