The computer hackers who say they pilfered restricted NATO files will likely come under police scrutiny, but their eventual arrest will not curb the tide of security threats that military and industrial organizations continually face.
That's the view of Richard Stiennon, an IT security analyst who has been closely watching the wave of high-profile cyber attacks that have beset many Western governments and organizations in recent years.
In the latest high-profile hacking incident, the so-called Anonymous group of hackers claimed Thursday that they had stolen files from NATO.
A NATO official said the alleged security breach was being investigated, but the military alliance has not made a formal acknowledgement of any theft.
Stiennon said organizations like NATO are constantly being targeted for the information they hold, by individuals, groups or even foreign countries.
"NATO has actually suffered attacks from outside sources, probably nation-states, probably either China or Russia in the past," Stiennon told CTV's Canada AM on Friday morning.
Stiennon said Anonymous has since posted several documents from the reported NATO attack online, none of which appeared to have any real value. One document had already been publicly available for four years.
"It's serious for NATO, but it's not serious really for the rest of the world," Stiennon said.
"NATO is basically embarrassed that somebody has been able to break into at least one of their servers and steal some documents."
More than anything, Stiennon said the alleged NATO data theft is an indication of the vulnerability large organizations have in an era when motivated hackers probe for a weakness and can strike at any time.
"This is just highlighting the asymmetric problem in that the defender's got a huge service area that they have to defend and protect, and the attacker can just pick and choose and go after any small little vulnerability that they found, as Anonymous has," Stiennon said.
Stiennon said it will likely take about six months for police to charge hackers involved in the apparent NATO theft.
"The perpetrators will be rounded up over time, it's just that it's a pretty loosely organized group," said Stiennon, noting that Anonymous reportedly has thousands of hackers who claim affiliation with the organization.
Anonymous has previously claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites around the world.
The group has also been supportive of the controversial WikiLeaks website, which seeks to release secret information to the public.
Hackers working with Anonymous claimed responsibility for attacks on the Visa and MasterCard websites last December, as retribution for the credit card companies' decision to stop processing donation payments for WikiLeaks.
The U.S. recently announced the arrest of 14 hackers in connection with a December attack on Internet payment service PayPal, which also stopped providing payment processing services to WikiLeaks.
With files from The Associated Press
