An interesting piece in The New York Times links cyber-attacks with the with the recent Russian attack on Georgia.

...in the run-up to the start of the war over the weekend, computer researchers had watched as botnets were ”staged„ in preparation for the attack, and then activated shortly before Russian air strikes began...

Ranking behind Nigeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia and El Salvador in terms of internet use, the effect on Georgia wasn't great:

In the end, Georgia, with a population of just 4.6 million and a relative latecomer to the Internet, saw little effect beyond inaccessibility to many of its government Web sites, which limited the government’s ability to spread its message online and to connect with sympathizers around the world during the fighting with Russia.

That led me -- given our greater reliance on the internet -- to wonder at the state of our own readiness. After all, according to this report, we're number two in the world in terms of hack attacks, and our government domains (govt.nz) are the eighth most popular targets worldwide. So is there an oversight group or coordinating body that would take charge in the event of a concerted cyber-attack on .nz? There's a passing reference to the need to review "New Zealand's cyber security response capability with a focus on government and industry" in April's Digital Strategy, but that seems to be it.

Oh, there is the New Zealand Computer Emergency Readiness Team, "a registered Charitable Trust established to improve the general Information Security posture of New Zealand society."

So is that all that stands between us a targeted cyber-attack; a charitable trust? (And what the hell is an "Information Security posture" anyway?)

Cyber warfare isn't necessarily a precursor to a military attack, in fact these days it's more likely to be for economic gain. What might a concerted DDOS attack on a small country like New Zealand do to the NZ dollar, for example? As the NYT notes, cyber-attacks are inexpensive, easy to mount and leave few fingerprints so they're bound to become more common. Shouldn't we be prepared?