Cyber Espionage
Spying is as old as human history, but cyber espionage presents a far less expensive way for both state and non-state actors, including private companies, to construct detailed informational mosaics on competitors and adversaries. Cyber spies can use stolen information for any number of purposes, including intimidation,extortion, or efforts to anticipate or disruptthe manoeuvring of political opponents.
It has now got to a level where better enhanced security is now the only option if companies and states are going to protect their data.
Cyber Espionage or cyber spying is seen as obtaining data or information without the proior consent of the owner of the data. This data can be personal, sensitive, propriety or even classified (FBI, MI5 etc) a cyber spy can target anyone from individuals, competitors, rivals, groups, government, enemies, states, or even whole countries.
The motivation for such activities can be for the following gains:
Personal
Financial
Political (hacktivism)
Military
The methods of such activity can be acheieved through the use of the Internet, networks or just by hacking one single computer. This can be done by using malware created with instructions built into it for a specific task, whether it be to cause damage or a denial of service but mostly to recieve data and send it back to the hacker. This malware can be anything from Trojan horses (key loggers) to spyware (tracking software).
A cyber spy is usually thought of as a professional security computer hacker, but in truth it can be performed by anyone who is willing to learn, the software is easily available on the internet and all it takes is the patience. Anyone from a professional to an amateur can perform cyber spying, which i...
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...pecialist IT security professionals through proper channels (Security clearance,ID, vetting) in order to ehance security and help prevention, it's only going to get easier and easier to run cyber espionage due to the increasing levels of ease of use in technology. Another layer of security is needed for businesses and government, there have been explorations in muscle memory passwords, the idea is that only you can remember it and it seems pretty difficult to crack considering it's inside a person brain and the brain remembers the muscle patterns.
Above all, the single most effective preventative measure against cyber espionage or indeed against any attack is education, if staff and other members are taught what to look for and know the dangers and more importantly know just how valuable their data is, then it will go a hell of a long way to stopping cyber attacks.
The pros of electronic surveillance are extensive. The ability for agents of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) to intercept and process communications and information from foreign powers, agents of foreign powers, international terrorist organizations, and others who seek to engage in activities with such groups, provides the ...
As technology continues to advance at lightning speed, the world as we used to know it is beginning to disappear. Publically available data has replaced much of the espionage tactics that the CIA depended on after WWII and into the Cold War. Information that used to take years to obtain through covert missions is now readily available on social media, commercial databases, or through Signals intelligence (SIGINT). As the world becomes more technologically advanced and intelligence sources display new opportunities, the Intelligence Community (IC) has been there to exploit the data to gain the upper hand on the enemy, and support decision makers. Advancements in technology have made the IC what it is today, however, the path of learning the correct methods of exploitation is littered with abuses. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the CIA’s newest technology was a proposed mind control drug, and project MK-ULTRA was born. The Central intelligence Agency (CIA) performed rogue tests on an unknowing public without their knowledge and severely tainted the image of the agency. In 2013, the public found out about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Top Secret PRISM program that obtained the phone and internet records of the public without their consent. These two programs were separated by decades, yet the similarities are undeniable. Both MK-ULTRA and PRISM resulted in intelligence oversight reforms aimed at managing these types of operations before they occur. While the government does not always have the ability to foresee how advancements in technology will affect the public, intelligence oversight mechanisms over the past 20 years provide the necessary safeguards that are needed to protect each American’s privacy, provide for th...
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
people’s lives. Hackers are not only threatening people’s own cyber security and privacy but also the United States’ economy, security and all citizens’ lives. On mid-November 2011, Russian hackers failed to attack a water plant in Illinois (Nakashima).Therefore, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was made. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is “a bill to enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastructure of the United States” (“S.2015”)The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was the battle between the national security and personal privacy.In this paper I will lay out three different position people take on the issue about The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 .
... have to be surreptitious since much information is readily available i.e. the internet. Firms and individuals can also simply request for general information through the phone or e-mail or even approach foreign companies as potential business partners in hopes of gaining access through business relationships.58 Corporate espionage is undoubtedly a growing threat for organizations and not much can be done since intellectual property is intangible. The best proven weapon against this cybercrime is to protect information assets well since an organization with a responsible attitude towards information security and proactive measures to implement it will find its forts strongly built.59 To quote Sun Tzu: “The ultimate in disposing one’s troops is to be without ascertainable shape. Then the most penetrating spies cannot pry in nor can the wise lay plans against you.60
With security being a major part of our country 's problems, the government is cracking down on
The art of Counter Intelligence is a framework of a spy network whose purpose of existence is to obtain intelligence data for analysis pertaining to national security . This structure and purpose of this paper is to conduit two contrasting objectives to the Counter Intelligence framework. Counter Intelligence of national government against national government and counter intelligence of citizenry against government are the objectives to be examined. The purpose of the examining these two contrasting objectives is to render whether counter intelligence measures are inherently damaging to either the citizenry of a national government or damaging to the national government(s).
Cybersecurity is a government institution implemented by Homeland Security. According to the website for Homeland Security, cybersecurity is operated by a team of skilled professionals who will recognize cyber vulnerability and respond as quickly as possible. The security was mainly built for United States defense reasons, but lately has also dealt with issues within the country. Of course its main purpose is to protect the United States and it will continue to do that. It just recently has taken steps to advance to national security as well as personal security. In 2010 the cybersecurity act that was passed was intended to integrate the private and public sector of cybersecurity for optimal use. Hacking int...
Stantis, Scott. Fighting Cyber Spying. Digital image. US News. U.S.News & World Report, 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. (Source K)
Society has become ever-increasingly dependent upon technology, more specifically, computers to conduct personal and business transactions and communications. Consequently, criminals have targeted these systems to conduct information and cyber warfare, which can include politically motivated attacks and to profit through ill-gotten means. In an article written by Koblentz and Mazanec (2013), cyber warfare is the act of disabling an enemy’s ability to use or obtain information, degrade its ability to make decisions, and to command its military forces. Additionally, information warfare is composed of cyber warfare and related to the protection, disruption, destruction, denial, or manipulation of information in order to gain a benefit through the technologies (Taddeo, 2012). Accordingly, as technology becomes readily available to various entities, the ability to conduct or perform warfare through technological means is multiplying.
It is asserted in another article Terrorist Use of the Internet: Information Operations in Cyberspace by Catherine A. Theohary and John Rollins. Both of them claimed that terrorists are using cyber space to dismantle different information operations through induction of fraudulent financial procedures, hacking and disinformation. They have argued that terrorist may use cyber space for the social and economic assistance. Moreover they have reviewed different American internet security agencies like DOD, FBI and NSA, and have devised that already many preliminary steps have been taken to combat cyber terrorism but they have stressed on the need of further planning of restricting the cyber warfare (Rollins and Theohary, 2011).
The world is in another cold war, except this time countries are battling for cyber supremacy. Cyberspace is a massive land of ever-changing technology and personal interaction (McGuffin and Mitchell 1). Cyberspace is not only a place where people post pictures and update their profile, but it also plays an enormous role in running a country. Advanced countries use computers to guide their military, keep track of citizens, run their power grids, and hold plans for nuclear devices and nuclear power. Risks to commercial and government concerns are now being noticed and many countries are taking actions to prevent such threats (McGuffin and Mitchell 1).
Information Warfare is not only becoming more rampantly used among people, but they are using different types as well. There are three different classifications of Information Warfare. The first one deals with personal information warfare. This is inclusive with all the information that is available about an individual. Class two deals with corporate information warfare, which involves how information effects companies, businesses, and all economic interests. Of all the classes the third one has the broadest margin. The third class is global information warfare. This purpose of this class is to deal with all a...
As the name suggests, spyware operates like a spy. It can be defined as any software was made to spy and steal private information from people or organizations without their knowledge and consent. There are several ways through which the software can get into a person’s computer. Most importantly, however, the malware get into a computer as a virus. Alternatively, it may get there as a consequence of installing infected software (Aycock 8).
Cyber security is the protection of networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access. This is important because a great number of our confidential information is on computers and transmit that data across networks to other computers. As of now cyber-attack is one of the transnational issues that we are concern about in the United States. If these private networks were hack our national security infrastructure will be in distress.