Cyber-espionage as a New Form of Domination

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 6 (acn) The danger of possible cyber attacks against Latin America was the topic discussed on Saturday during the International Conference "New scenarios of political communication in the digital realm."
Speaking at the panel on Cyber-security, Enrique Amestoy, advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for issues of Information and Communication Technologies of Uruguay, pointed out that the cold war, far from ending, has mutated into cyberspace.
For this reason, information and communication technologies (ICT) are a way to control the world via the Internet, stressed the Uruguayan expert
Amestoy recalled how in 2003, after the nationalization of hydrocarbons, Venezuela suffered a cyber attack from the U.S. against PDVSA, which threatened the nation's political and economic stability.
That act showed the need of using free software, one hundred percent auditable, as a measure to prevent the attacks of the empire, argued the advisor.
Similarly, computer attacks on Iran's nuclear program showed the vulnerabilities of Windows, said the expert.
He added that Edward Snowden, a U.S. technology consultant, a former employee of the CIA and the NSA, publicly denounced how the U.S. government monitors and spies the world and one of the tools to facilitate this process is precisely the Internet, with the use of the so-called "rear gates" of the Windows system.
The Uruguayan expert described computer espionage as an act of terrorism and a threat to the continent, so the MERCOSUR bloc suggested the use of free software to reduce the chances of an attack.
Uruguay, Amestoy said, approved in 2013 a law for the use of open formats and software which requires institutions to migrate to that format.
In 2014 the then President Jose Mujica signed the decree of cyber-security, which regulates that all state e-mails must be placed in national servers.
"Without free software and hardware, one hundred percent auditable, we will be at the mercy of espionage and cyber attacks by the Great Powers," concluded Amestoy.