Talking about Cyber war might look like something strange for many people in the Middle East. In countries with low levels in economy, education, and global effect, you can easily find technology penetration at consumer level. The problem with using and implementing technology only at this level without putting security in mind will leave most Middle East users, governments, critical ICT infrastructure, and private sectors vulnerable to all types of cyber attacks!
Most countries in the Middle East lack the technology, body of knowledge, and policies to deal with these new global phenomenons such as “Cyber Crime, Cyber War, Cyber Terrorism, and all other Cyber Activities”. But since we are living in a connected world, we will be affected sooner or later. Although few countries in the region started to adopt new laws for cybercrime and internet governance, the progress is very weak and it involves lots of troubles at many levels such as freedom of speech, privacy, and politics.
If we started to talk about Cyber War in the Middle East, lots of website defacement, Hactivism, spam, piracy, and online Jihads will pop up. But this is not the whole story; it is something related to the culture and society.
If you look at current conflicts in the Middle East such as those between Israel and Palestine, you will understand that it is bigger than hacking activities. Remember also the Egyptian Algerian conflict in African Nations Cup. Everything in the Middle East can easily be turned to war offline and online. But Things could be easier online, that’s why we see lots of activities online when it comes to conflicts, political and financial problems.
One of the latest examples for cyber armies is the Iranian Cyber Army, which is the group of hackers responsible for latest Twitter attack!
But the problem is too complex to deal with at governmental levels. The only actions they have are Censorship, Banning, filtering, or policing the internet. But I can easily determine that they are not even good in those actions. There’s no impossible when it comes to digital world!
In 2007 a report published by BNAC stated “Similar attacks targeting governments in the Middle East and the Balkans, these show that as societies become more reliant on Internet technologies, these same technologies become a conduit for protest and attack by the disaffected”
I don’t really understand how will they be able to deal with the future?