According to Riley Walters, a researcher on foreign and national policy, an average of 160 successful cyber attacks occur every week on various U.S. industries in attempts to gain confidential information (1). Similar to other national security challenges following the 9/11 attacks, cyber threat can originate from unexpected places, resulting in a creation of a dynamic risk to national security. Cyber attackers can come from places such as the intelligence gathering components of foreign militaries or organized terrorist organizations, to any experienced individual. Each have different abilities and operating methods, making their threats difficult to counter (Rollins Henning 1). Year after year, federal agencies report an ever increasing amount …show more content…
It is most widely known for delaying Iran’s nuclear development program by disabling the control systems for their nuclear centrifuges. The W32 stuxnet was discovered in June 2010 on approximately 100,000 hosts spanning over 25 nations including the U.S. and Russia (see fig. …show more content…
In retaliation for the Stuxnet attack, Iran created and funded Cleaver, an organization of trained and experienced technicians operating with malicious intent. According to Cylance, Cleaver has targeted some of the most sensitive infrastructural companies in the world, including military, oil and gas, telecommunications, and even aerospace industries spanning over 50 major countries including the U.S. (12). Similar to the operating capabilities of Stuxnet, Cylance operations have the capability to sabotage and disable to a certain degree, Industrial Control Systems(ICS) as well as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition(SCADA) networks. (Cylance 14). ICS and SCADA networks control a significant portion of a nation’s infrastructure from power plants to transportation systems. The destructive capabilities from cyber operations have the potential to alter or disable infrastructure vital to the daily functions of an entire nation. As cyber threats become more prevalent, the U.S. has established dynamic initiatives to counter the evolving threat of cyber attacks, such as Initiative 10 of the National Cybersecurity Initiative, which created organized response and early warning capabilities as well as provided coordination between foreign authority and private sector organizations (Comprehensive 3). The initiatives directly affect how national defense is
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.
President Obama has realized the seriousness of the upcoming threats and turned the government focus more toward defending the information and communications infrastructure and In May 2009, he issued a request from top to bottom review of the current situation. The report titled the Cyberspace Policy Review includes strategy, policy, and standards regarding the security of and operations in cyberspace. According the white house’s cybersecurity foreign policy, the Cyberspace Policy Review highlighted two objectives and ten near-term actions to support the cybersecurity strategy.
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.
Poison Ivy is the name given to a family of malicious remote administration Trojans first developed in 2005 and still being utilized for cyber attacks today. As a type of remote administration software, once a computer becomes infected the attacker has complete control of the computer. The most recently documented large-scale utilization of the software was during the “Nitro” attacks from July 2011 through September 2011 that targeted both chemical and defense companies for the purpose of industrial espionage (Fisher). The information security firm McAfee stated that five multinational natural gas and oil companies were successfully targeted by the Poison Ivy malware, as well as 29 other companies identified by Symantec (Finkle). These organizations lost proprietary information to the attackers, including confidential bidding plans (for the energy companies) and details on manufacturing processes and formulas (for several chemical companies).
Cyber physical systems are the computers and networks that monitor, interact, and control some physical systems. In modern industrial nations, these systems are commonplace controlling our electrical grid, telecommunication, healthcare, water supply, transportation, manufacturing, and financial institutions. These systems will continue to become more integrated and our society will continue to be more and more dependent on them, this dependency on cyber physical system is what makes them and countries such as the United States a target for
Founded by the Monterey Group (Terrorism Committee for the U.S. Legislature), the United States adopted a three-level categorization for cyber-terror including simple-unstructured, advanced-structures, and complex-coordinated (Findlay, 2014). At the first level of cyber-terror is a simple unstructured attack. Under this category, a simple-unstructured attack involves very diminutive target analysis, command and control, or learning skills. This type of attack is normally planned within a matter of months and targets a general organization. Next is the level of an advanced-structured attack, which requires a straightforward target analysis, command and control, learning skills, and a high amount of planning in order to cause extensive damage. For example, in 2007, there was a three-week period of cyber-attacks on Estonia (located in Northern Europe), which targeted the country’s government, financial, and security divisions. Due to the extensive planning of this sophisticated attack, Estonia’s government was thrown into chaos and was unable to operate at full capacity. Finally, at the last level of cyber terrorism is the complex-coordinated attack (Extremely rare). At the highest level of terror, these attacks require substantial time, specialized skills, resources, and a highly capable target analysis. One of these substantially rare attacks
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...
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.
Every year, cybercrime costs businesses $400 billion and by 2019, cybercrime will have cost the global economy 2.1 trillion dollars (Morgan 1). But, economic loss isn’t the only problem caused by weak cybersecurity; weak cybersecurity measures could allow hackers to collect data on citizens, cause widespread death, and destroy entire nations. Despite the massive threat the problem poses, no one has yet to institute an effective solution. Although government regulation and website blocking attempt to eliminate cybercrime and cyberwarfare, an ideal solution exists in government guidance and collaboration with the private sector.
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 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).
This project was originally conducted under the Advanced Research Projects Agency to counteract the USSR’s launch of the Sputnik. After the creation it had been called the Arpanet, and would be used specifically for government networks until the early 90’s. In 1990 the World Wide Web had been created as an online public network for everyday civilians to use.
There are different groups, from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed. The advantages of technology and the internet have led more criminals to use cyberspace to commit crimes. The threat of cybercrime is increasing as globalization continues to spread across the world.