Persuasive Essay On Cybertheft

Information Technology is everywhere. In our phones, appliances, computers, televisions and the list goes on. The United States must balance the need for ever expanding use of technology and the associated risk of the same. As a country we must protect what's become one of our most valuable resources while we expand its use to further the benefits to our government, employers and citizens. The infrastructure of the united states have become overly dependent on technology to function day to day.

In today’s day and age, cyberattacks are becoming more prominent and effective in gaining intelligence, stealing private information and causing widespread personal and governmental concern. Many people have heard the term cyberattack before, but most do

not actually know what it is. “A cyberattack is deliberate exploitation of computer systems, technology-dependent enterprises and networks. Cyberattacks use malicious code to alter computer code, logic or data, resulting in disruptive consequences that can compromise data and lead to cybercrimes, such as information and identity theft” ("Cyberattack," n.d.). Cyber attacks can cause varying levels of impact, some a simple nuisance to a major havoc. The driving force behind the act can be anywhere from personal to economic, employment, and even political destruction.
Cyberattacks are happening constantly all around you. Most of the attacks you hear about on the news are infiltration of major corporations. What most people don’t know is the fact social media sites are the new target for hackers. A recent study revealed that social media related events have nearly quadrupled over the last five years (Hayes, 2016). This is troubling to the FBI because seventy-eight percent of American have an account on some form of social media. The offenders post terroristic threats that strike fear into tens of millions. They also steal users private information like address, phone numbers, credit card numbers. In 2015, facebook reported that two percent of its monthly users were fake. That may seem like a low percentage but that translate to nearly thirty-two million users (Hayes, 2016). Surprisingly, social media sites are among the most secure websites on the web.
Another way cyberattacks touch the average person is through identity theft. Identity theft is a crime where the imposter acquires personal information about an individual. It can include someone's driver's license or social security number. The stolen information can be used to obtain credit cards, merchandise, and even creating a criminal record for the person being affected. In 2016 sixteen billion dollars was stolen from approximately thirteen million people across the United States (Hart, 2016). One way credit info is obtained is through your computer. Hackers can steal your credit card information when you use online banking. Once the card numbers are stolen, the thief can use the account to charge thousands of dollars and rack up debt under your name. The thief can also sell the stolen information on credit card hacking sites. The hacking sites allows buyers to specify which information they desire and are sold for purchase or joint venture (Hart, 2016).
Before technology became popular, to infiltrate confidential company documents or information you had to physically be at the company. The only method thieves could use was to steal paper documents directly from the company. Now, a hacker can steal information from a company whilst being five thousand miles away. This has been an ever growing problem over the last ten years. Most companies now are more technologically dependent then they have ever been, keeping important files saved on their computer systems. Almost half of all cyber attacks in 2015 were against small businesses with less than two-hundred fifty workers. The cyber burglars steal information from the businesses to rob bank accounts, steal identity, file for fraudulent tax returns to secure refunds, or commit insurance fraud. They can also take over a company's website using twenty different methods.
The number of different things cyberattacks can affect are endless. In the wake of the recent Presidential election, we shift the view to how the government is affected. Cyberattacks against the United States government are up an incredible one thousand three hundred percent since 2006 (Walker, 2017). National security has been affected as a result of hacking over the last three years. A data breach in the Office of Personnel Management left millions of U.S. citizens affected. It is reported that fingerprints from an estimated five and a half million people were compromised in 2015 (Walker, 2017). Experts say that the attack began about a year before it was completed. Its truly alarming that even the United States Government can not prevent a major attack from happening. The government needs to go back to the drawing board on how to secure the departments and the data collected about its citizens. Preventing cyber crimes is an extremely difficult task to carry out. In order to prevent an attack from happening, you would need to know how the individual is going to be attacking. Predicting what new virus or bot the hacker will use is near impossible. As a result, former President Barack Obama’s plan was start cyber information sharing. Cyber information sharing is connecting companies, individuals and the government. His plan was to share the types of attacks being carried out with others to prevent a domino effect of infections. Cyber data sharing is so imperative for keeping the sorts of assaults we have seen in the course of the most recent couple of years, that parts of it have as of now been joined into large portions of the security items available today. McAfee Lab’s cautions that country or state aggressors could target physical frameworks through computerized access, and government-targeting on ransomware will be on the rise. Also misusing workers will keep on being a backbone focus for assailants (Walker, 2017).
The Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee, as announced by different cybersecurity associations, is the biggest story going around in the industry currently and it is not the first unsatisfactory and unlawful action by the nation. Russia has acted in glaring infringement of universal law and deliberate carelessness for the privileges of different countries. It is time and past time to make a move accordingly. The response to the reoccurring incidents not just from Russia but China as well, has to stop. Part of the attacks come from individuals but most come initiated by the government. One possibility to combat the actions of other nations infiltrating sections of the United States government is to put sanctions on the guilty states. There is currently a sanction in place against Russia, although president Trump has plans to lift the business crushing sanction.
The governments of the world and corporations, caretakers of a broad spectrum of information, must be vigilant in staying one step ahead of cyber criminals. They can do so by ensuriung they utilize the most advanced systems, make ongoing investment in new technology and work together to protect the data they are entrusted to keep confidential. Companies have huge budgets to further secure their systems and protect critical company information. Many hire teams of hackers to uncover system vulnerabilities and provide valuable feedback to their company and industry associations.

Cybertheft is currently the fastest crime in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Defense claims it was hit by 10 million cyber attacks per day in 2012. The National Nuclear Security Administration, reported 10 million cyber attacks as well in 2013.

The us government will invest over 19 billion dollars in cyber security for 2017. An overall 35% increase over the budget for 2016.

By the year 2021 cyber crime will cause six trillion dollars per year in financial damage and increase of three trillion dollars from 2015. Over the next five years, annual spending for cybersecurity will exceed one trillion dollars annually. Unfortunately by the year 2019 1.5 million cyber security jobs will remain unfilled. As a result cyber security unemployment rate is zero and is the fastest growing profession in the United States.

As more and more people go online around the world especially in third world countries, their sheer numbers pose a significant threat to global cyber security. Criminals will seek out these new online connections for botnets to attack IT systems globally. By the year 2020, two hundred billion devices will be connected to the internet, so cyber thieves will grow in numbers to access these

users.