A Risk Assessment of Piql Services by FFI

Intentional (Yes/No/Both)

Yes.

State X wants to alter the details of diplomatic agreements to their advantage. One of the few countries in the world that is both capable of and willing to violate the privacy of other states for their own betterment. Though nothing can be definitively proven, state X has been involved in these kinds of operations before. In removing some of the proof of agreements between itself and another country’s Foreign Ministry, state X stands a better chance at altering the agreements to its benefit. State X has formidable resources and skills with regards to accessing other computer systems without authorisation. Employs many skilful hackers, whom they provide with a big support system.

Profile of actor (if intentional)

Description of cause

Competence and resources (if intentional)

User/value

User class

Public sensitive.

User type

The Foreign Ministry.

Value

Sensitive diplomatic correspondence. Contains the details on how important bilateral decisions and agreements were made, which were not always above board. If it falls into the wrong hands, it could greatly damage the reputation of the Foreign Ministry and could potentially alter their future relationships with other nations who might now view them differently.

Location

Geographical zone: South (Southern Africa). The region has varied terrain, ranging from forest and grasslands to desert. The developmental level is medium and the political climate is fairly stable.

The piqlVault is situated in an urban area, near the city centre.

Location description

The scenario takes place in the present. The time period is 0-30/50 years, as the value is time-sensitive, i.e. the diplomatic repercussions of such intelligence getting out is lessened with time. The scenario is also a risk for the future, or as long as diplomatic services have communications with other nations that they would like to hide. The climate zone is a warm temperate. It is winter, in early June. The local weather conditions are mild and hot and dry: 15° Celsius with a relative humidity of 57 %.

Environment description

The incident occurs at the start of the working day.

142

FFI-RAPPORT 16/00707