Essay
RESIST RISING
CYBER-BALKANISATION
Illustration by Kym WintersA string of interrelated events in 2017 catapulted
cybersecurity out from data-centre basements to
the very midst of geopolitical battles that promise to
shape global affairs as we know them. But before we
wade into those murky waters, let’s do some time travel.
In 1950 at a Women’s Club ral ly in West Vi rgin ia, Joseph
McCarthy famously held aloft a sheet of paper,
pronouncing: “I have here in my hand a list of 205 – a
list of names that were made known to the Secretary of
State as being members of the Communist Party and
who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy
in the State Department.” The gesture came to represent
an era in US histor y known as the second Red Scare, the
period between 1947 and 1956 when the US was gripped
by the fear of Communist influence.
McCarthy’s words echoed eerily when senator Marco
Rubio noted the widespread use of Kaspersky Anti-Virus
within the US government during a congressional
hearing. He asked: “Would any of you be comfortable
with the Kaspersky Lab software on your computers?”
Dan iel Coats, di rector of nat ional intel l igence, responded:
“A resounding no from me”.
The subsequent decision to ban the Kaspersky Anti-
Virus software from all US government computers
followed a months-long international inquisition over
whether the cybersecurity giant’s products can really be
trusted. Come September 2017, the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) instructed federal civilian
agencies to remove Kaspersky software.A SPLINTERED INTERNET BEGINS
Jump to December 2017. I swear this really happened:Driver: You one of those security tech guys then?
Me: I guess so.
Driver: I use Kaspersky. Should I stop using Kaspersky...?My savvy taxi driver was referring to a recent letter
published by the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC),
which stated that “an anti-virus product under the
control of a hostile actor could extract sensitive data from
that network or indeed cause damage to the network
itself”. This ‘hostile actor’ naturally being Russia.
This advice put major companies like Barclays in an
uncomfortable position. It had been giving Kaspersky
Anti-Virus out for free since as far back as 2008 to as
many as 250,000 customers. ‘Communists!’, you can
almost hear McCarthy wailing.
At the centre of this furore is the allegation about
Kaspersky’s collection – deliberate or accidental – of US
cyber tools from an NSA contract worker’s personal
computer. We may never know which version of the
Kaspersky story is true. But it doesn’t really matter
whether the company’s collection of these tools wasSECURITY POLITICSThe global internet is heading towards a schism brought on by
security concerns. Charl van der Walt explores what this will mean
for business, government and the citizens of the world