CYBERWAR: ROLE OF NON-STATE ACTORS A Dissertation submitted to the Panjab University, Chandigarh for the award of Masters of Philosophy in Social Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration By GS Sabherwal (Roll No 4531) Under the Guidance of Dr Surabhi Pandey 45th ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMME IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (2019-20) INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION NEW DELHI i CERTIFICATE I have the pleasure to certify that Shri GS Sabherwal, has perceived his research work and prepared the present dissertation titled ‘Cyberwar: Role of Non-state Actors’, under my guidance and supervision. The dissertation is a result of his own work and to the best of my knowledge, no part of it has earlier comprised any other monograph, dissertation or book. This is being submitted to Panjab University, Chandigarh, for the degree of Masters of Philosophy in Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration of Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. I recommend that the dissertation of Shri GS Sabherwal is worthy of consideration for the award of M. Phil. degree of Panjab University. (Dr. Surabhi Pandey) Supervisor Indian Institute of Public Administration IP Estate, Ring Road New Delhi ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am extremely grateful to my guide Dr. Surabhi Pandey for her invaluable guidance and constant encouragement during the course of the study. The dissertation in its present form has been possible only due to her painstaking efforts in going through the draft and making valuable suggestions/corrections. All through the study she guided me patiently, tirelessly and cheerfully. She has been extremely generous in giving preference to my dissertation work despite her extremely busy schedule. I extend my sincere thanks to Prof. G Bhattacharjee, Programme Director and Prof. Neetu Jain, Programmme Co-director, who are a constant source of encouragement during the course of the program. I am also thankful to the staff of APPPA office, specially Shri Manish Rawat who provided logistic support during the writing of this dissertation. Last but not the least, I am grateful to my wife Shabnam and my children Naina and Angad for their help, support and patience during the process of writing this dissertation and pursuing the program. (GS Sabherwal) (Roll No. 4531) 45th APPPA iii Table of Contents CERTIFICATE ............................................................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................... ii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... vi ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................... viii CHAPTER - 1 ....................................................................................................... 1 CYBERWAR : INTRODUCTION AND AN OVERVIEW ......................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Statement of Research Problem................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Purpose or Objectives ................................................................................................................ 4 1.4 Rationale or Justification ............................................................................................................ 4 1.5 Research Design ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Scope of the Study ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.8 Methods to be Applied and Data Sources .................................................................................. 7 1.9 Chapter Scheme ......................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER - 2 ....................................................................................................... 9 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER - 3 ..................................................................................................... 14 CYBERWAR – ATTACKS, ATTACKERS, TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS .............. 14 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 14 3.2 Cybercrime ............................................................................................................................... 14 3.3 Cyber-attack, Cyber-terrorism and Cyber-warfare ................................................................... 17 3.4 Types of Attacks ....................................................................................................................... 19 3.5 Types of Cybercrime Actors ...................................................................................................... 20 3.6 Types of Threats and Trends .................................................................................................... 23 3.7 Cybercrime Tools ...................................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER - 4 ..................................................................................................... 32 CYBERWAR – CASE STUDIES .............................................................................. 32 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 32 4.2 Case Studies .............................................................................................................................. 34 4.3 Olympic Games (a.k.a Stuxnet) ................................................................................................ 35 4.4 Ukrainian Power Grid ............................................................................................................... 39 4.5 Kosovo War .............................................................................................................................. 42 4.6 Russia-Georgia War .................................................................................................................. 45 4.7 Operation Cast Lead ................................................................................................................. 47 4.8 The Jasmine Revolution ............................................................................................................ 50 4.9 DuQu (1.0 & 2.0) ....................................................................................................................... 52 4.10 Operation Aurora ................................................................................................................... 54 4.11 Operation Orchard ................................................................................................................. 58 4.12 The Shamoon Attack I & II ...................................................................................................... 61 4.13 Russian hackers tracking Ukrainian artillery ........................................................................... 64 4.14 Sony Corp's Hollywood Studio Attack .................................................................................... 65 4.15 Attack on Estonian Government ............................................................................................ 67 4.16 Operation Dust Storm ............................................................................................................ 70 iv 4.17 Operation Anarchist ............................................................................................................... 72 4.18 Operation Buckshot Yankee ................................................................................................... 74 4.19 2016 US Elections ................................................................................................................... 76 4.20 Wannacry ............................................................................................................................... 78 4.21 Anonymous vs ISIS .................................................................................................................. 80 CHAPTER - 5 ..................................................................................................... 83 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ......................................................................... 83 5.1 Employment of Non-State Actors: Reasons ............................................................................. 83 5.2 Role of Non-State Actors .........................................................................................................