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Impact of cyber warfare
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No one likes it when our emails are read, or when we think someone has looked at our text messages, but can you imagine cyber-snooping on a massive scale? Can you imagine cyber war, where countries infiltrate computer systems of other countries in order to overpower and control them? Though cyber attacks are not as obvious to Americans like other problems, such as poverty, illegal immigration, or a poor economy, a cyber attack could destroy our country. I believe that our government needs to make the protection against a cyber attack our highest priority when considering all other threats against America. Consider what it would be like if computers that regulate subway systems, trains, planes, ships did not work properly. There could be multiple accidents with vehicles not following their course or not working because the computer systems that regulate them are not working. It could be disastrous.A cyber attack on our communication and transportation infrastructures could freeze our nation’s ability to do these things safely at the biggest levels. If these systems are attacked, the ability to use technology to talk and travel safely may not be possible. “...Because the nation’s grid has about 600 separate owners, and their computers are heavily interconnected with links that can carry both good data and malicious code, 100 percent protection against cyber attack is unlikely” (Wald). It is easy to take for granted the ability to get ahold of family and friends that live far away, or travel safely to work every day, but cyber attacks on computer systems that regulate telephone lines, computer data bases, subways, trains, and airplanes could be devastating to a huge number of people. Some may believe that poverty is the number on... ... middle of paper ... ...tecting America from a cyber attack should be our nation’s highest priority. It is true that poverty, illegal immigration, and a poor economy are problems in America. There are other problems also that have people concerned. Computer power is important to America, however, because it controls our country’s operations on a massive scale. If it is jeopardized, not only could it be impossible to communicate or travel, our food and water supplies may be unfit to eat and drink. If that is not bad enough, if our defense computer systems are compromised then our country is at risk immediately of attack from any country, anywhere in the world, including within our own. It is important to protect our country from obvious problems, but we need computer experts working around the clock to make sure our computer systems notice immediately if our infrastructures are attacked.
At this juncture, it may be somewhat difficult to accept the proposition that a threat to the telecommunications grid, both wired and wireless, in the United States could potentially be subject to a catastrophic cyber attack. After careful research on the subject, it appears the potentiality of an event of such magnitude, which either disrupts one or the other grids for a long period or destroys either, is both theoretically and realistically impossible. It may be that proponents—those who advance such theories—equate such “doomsday” scenarios as if a cyber attack would or could be of the same magnitude as a conventional or nuclear military strike. Terms such as “cyber Pearl Harbor,” “cyber 9/11” and “cyber Vietnam” have been used to describes potential catastrophic cyber attacks and yet, “Though many have posited notions on what a ‘real’ cyber war would be like, we lack the understanding of how such conflicts will be conducted and evolve.” (Rattray & Healey, 2010, p. 77). Yet, the U.S. government continues to focus on such events, as if the plausibility of small-scale cyber attacks were not as pressing.
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...
Terrorism represents a continuing threat to the United States. It is the most significant threat to our national security. Terrorist attacks have definitely left many concerns about the possibilities of future incidents of terrorism in the United States. Since the events of September 11, 2011, Americans and much of the world are afraid. Americans are at war with terrorism and no longer feel comfortable. A part of this unease feeling has to do with cyber terrorism.
Cyber attacks on the US government are common. According to NBC, there have been 700 cyber attacks on the US from China alone. Each time they attack us, they steal military secrets and data about America's critical infrastructure, particularly the electrical power and telecommunications, things that are necessary and could be dangerous in the wrong hands(Winderm 1). Not only that, but a leak of the data that had been collected on citizens has already occurred when Edward Snowden leaked information that the government was collecting. If Edward Snowden could do it, surely someone else in the world can too, and next time we might not be as lucky with how much information gets leaked.
What concerns the government of the United States most is the security of the critical infrastructure from the cyber threats. The nation is depending heavily on the technology in most of its critical sectors to keep it up and running. Thus, this makes its more vulnerable to cyber-attacks from outsiders and insiders. Therefore, its protection must be a priority.
Cyber security is like trying to box while being blindfolded.. Cyber instability may cause massive panic in citizens of the United States. Government surveillance is one of the platforms of cyber security and it started to erupt after the 9/11 incident. The main ways the government watches people today is with cell phone, social media, and email surveillance. Should they be able to invade our privacy? Maybe. Many crimes are committed on computers everyday whether it be credit card hacks, stolen identities, or even social media accounts taken. Cyber attacks may lead people to distrust the cyber community and the people behind cyber protection.
In recent years, many possible plans to enact government regulation to improve cybersecurity have been suggested. Most recently, in 2017, then U.S. president Barack Obama implemented the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The plan would have invested $19 billion in cybersecurity by gathering experts to make recommendations in regards to cyber security, help secure the government IT group, and encourage more advanced security measures (Daniel 1). However, while CNAP does present a way to solve the problem, it just adds another program that attempts to enhance cybersecurity: “It is the multiplicity of programs and division of responsibility that diminishes their effectiveness. At least eleven federal agencies bear significant responsibility for cybersecurity” (Cohen 1). Every so often, another cybersecurity program will be established, but former plans are seldom removed. This leads to a large amount of departments to share responsibility, which creates general confusion and limits each department’s power. Furthermore, widespread government regulation may weaken cybersecurity. Many fear that any regulation would not be flexible enough and would instead allow easier hacking (Ridge 3). If every system in the entire nation had the same security measures, it would be much easier to break into as by breaking into one system, a hacker a could break into everything.
With the development of technologies, Cyber Attacks have been increased rapidly in the past few years. Probability of causing damage to critical state infrastructure like nuclear or defense system, air traffic control, other governmental institutions, business and citizens leads to the problematic issue of its attribution, which is being highly debated in international Law. This Article by Nicholas Tsagourias makes contribution in that debate and revolves around the question of ascription of cyber-attacks as an armed attack and the right of self defense by the victim state in response to such attacks. However, the law of war requires that the cyber-attack must be attributed before a counterattack is permitted. This Article critically evaluates different obstacles of attribution like anonymity (determination of attacker’s identity), attack from different jurisdictions, and presentation of evidence in order to exercise the right of self defense by throwing the light on various political, technical and legal aspects.
Many nations in the world - the United States, China, Russia, Iran, Germany, and more- use cyber warfare as a method of conducting sabotage and espionage. Nations, such as China and Russia, use espionage in order to prevent their economy and their military technology from falling behind by stealing advanced nations’ technology. Other nations, including Israel and Iran, focus on sabotaging other nations to cripple them, by sending malwares that destroy important data on the system, from advancing their technology and costing them a decent amount of money due to repairs. Another popular cyber attack used, mainly with hacktivist, government- sympathetic groups not owned by the government, and nations less advanced in technology, is Denial-of-service, or DoS. DoS is used to hinder the target’s website and other things that are maintained by computers by making it unavailable to intended users. People argue there are no benefits for cyber warfare due to its potential destructive powers and instant process of destruction. While other people-looking from a different view find that cyber warfare does have its benefits. They argue that an important benefit is that cyber warfare takes place in cyber space meaning that it does not physically harm people. They also argue that cyber warfare draws the awareness of the nation on the ever increasing dangers of cyber warfare and forces the government to set up stronger cyber security to fend off international attacks, which also help protect the government from internal hackers. It also creates more jobs for hackers, who use their knowledge to increase the security instead of harm it. Although cyber warfare produces damaging effects on a nation, in the long run, it crea...
Privacy threats are currently the biggest threat to National Security today. The threats are not only concerning to the government, however. An alarming 92% of Americans are concerned that the power grid may be vulnerable to a cyber-attack (Denholm). Although this is a more recent development to the cyber threats we have experienced, this is not the first time that privacy threats have stepped into the limelight as people are forced to watch their every online move.
Cybercrime is defined as a crime in which computer is the object of the crime (hacking, phishing, spamming) or is used as a tool to commit an offence (child pornography, hate crimes). Cybercriminals may use computer technology to access personal information, business trade secrets, or use the internet for exploitive or malicious purposed. Criminals can also use computers for communication and document or data storage. Criminals who perform these illegal activities are often referred to as hackers.
...ing the first half of 2007 has revealed that the study found the banking industry as soft target for phishing scams in India.
The nation has become dependent on technology, furthermore, cyberspace. It’s encompassed in everything we deliver in our daily lives, our phones, internet, communication, purchases, entertainment, flying airplane, launching missiles, operating nuclear plants, and implicitly, our protection. The more ever-growing technology empower Americans, the more they become prey to cyber threats. The United States Executive Office of the President stated, “The President identified cybersecurity as one of the top priorities of his administration in doing so, directed a 60-day review to assess polices.” (United States Executive Office of the President, 2009, p.2). Furthermore, critical infrastructure, our network, and internet alike are identified as national assets upon which the administration will orchestrate integrated cybersecurity policies without infringing upon and protecting privacy. While protecting our infrastructure, personal privacy, and civil liberties, we have to keep in mind the private sector owns and operates the majority of our critical and digital infrastructure.
The only counter measures taken so far that have been revealed is that the 300 Internet addresses were shut down in May 2010. The very recent public notification of this cyber-attack will continue to unfold and new implemented strategies to prevent a reoccurance remain to be seen. As a patriot of this great nation, what has been presented is of extreme, if not grave, concern. The challenges of cyberculture to our nation’s security have been revealed. To what extent our security has been breached is a matter of speculation but be informed that these breaches must be met with complete counter-active success - failure to do so is not an option. .