Earlier this morning, while listening to a story about the use of social media in Iran, a thought occurred to me: would governments have a need for their own botnets?
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that governments have any such networks nor are actively creating them. I am not suggesting, either, some massive international conspiracy. Rather, I am curious if this technique would be useful for states.
Cyberspace will be, by all accounts, the next major battlefront in international warfare. Given that there are few, if any, casualties on the battlefield, cyber-attacks will likely be more commonplace. States who are merely hostile towards one another and not engaged in active combat may utilize cyber-attacks against one another, such as the recent war between Georgia and Russia.
In their current incarnation, botnets provide malicious individuals or organizations the means to tap into a supermassive computer network. Malware infects the personal computers of unsuspecting individuals, allowing for The most common use of a botnet is to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, but other uses are possible.
Governments of sufficient size, such as the United States, would likely not need a botnet. These governments have more that sufficient resources and talent to conduct more sophisticated forms of attack. Furthermore, the political and social risks of being caught operating such a network would be too great.
On the other hand, smaller governments, especially governments that are much more restrictive or even totalitarian, would have every incentive to create such networks. These governments have limited resources at their disposal, insufficient resources to dedicate to cyber-warfare, and a growing need to counteract the internet as a tool of political and social change.
In the end, botnets may not prove to be an effective tool. States wishing to stifle true dissent may simply choose to disable access to the internet entirely. A botnet may only prove useful as a tool of war between states, or between states and non-state actors (e.g., terrorist groups). Still, it is worth considering the possibility of the botnet as a tool of warfare, if only to protect against it.
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