Cyberwar, Syrian Style

Syrian rebels and Tibetan rights activists were the targets of two major cyberwarfare attacks in the past week--both of which used novel methods.

Syrian opposition members were attacked by a Skype trojan that allowed outsiders to spy on their computers, while Tibetan activists were hit by a spoofed European Union email that hid malware on their systems. The two attacks happened within days of each other, and highlight an unfortunate truth. Just as mail bombs were used in prior conflicts to silent dissidents, cyberattacks are being used in 2012. In the Tibetan attack, over 80 prominent activists in the Tibetan rights community received an email that appeared to be a copy of a June 14 European Parliament resolution on Tibetan self-immolations--a legitimate document. However, the email came from an unknown organization called the “Tibetan Welfareoffice” and was written in broken English.