Shortly after the horrendous violations of human rights by the Nazi’s, in 1949 the Geneva Convention was created. This fourth treaty was established to create the rules and regulations of what is expectable in times of warfare. It gives protection to civilians in times when war tares families and countries apart. President Obama speaking on the importance of the fourth Geneva Convention stated, “We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend…And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard” (“President”). Today Americans face a new type of conflict, one that many consider as the fifth breed of warfare, and answers by the name cyber warfare (“Threat”). Peculiarly, cyber …show more content…
Electrical grids are controlled by computers. Until granting consideration to it, computers and the impact they have on individual lives, go undetected. Americans exist in cyber cocoons. Take airlines, for example, if a cyber attack were to succeed against an airline, airplanes could crash killing thousands. A neo 9/11 could occur without a single terrorist or foreign enemy ever having to touch U.S. soil. On the other hand, consider an attack against one of the 104 nuclear power plants in the United States (Dedman). A skilled enemy could hack into a nuclear power plants computer system, and within minutes overheat the volatile nuclear reactor.
Perhaps cyber attacks of this sort would seem like nothing more than fear mongering and science fiction; however, such an attack has already occurred. Last year a virus dubbed Stuxnet attacked Iran’s nuclear power plant. Stuxnet swept across unconnected computer systems until it found away into the Iranian power plants system. From there it clandestinely took control of the system and manipulated it until it was so compromised it ceased normal function. After its purpose accomplishing its purpose, Stuxnet disappeared without a trace. Leaving the Iranian nuclear power plant in shambles, Stuxnet’s creators remain unknown, which is perhaps the most frightening of all facts (Sentence 2-5 Barnes). Con Coughlin, an expert in international terrorism stated, “Russian nuclear officials have warned of another
With cyber war, nations are able to skip the battlefield. Gone are the days where troops line up across from each other hoping to do damage to the other. Clarke explains that people, industries, governments, companies and organizations can be possible targets and are vulnerable to these attacks. Keeping that in mind should help these targets become defensive minded and shield off attacks before they happen. As we all know, the prevention is better than the
On March 31, 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started a nationwide campaign to warn against the dangers faced by the U.S. utilities against the cyberattacks. According to DHS, there were an estimated 331 hacks or physical attacks against the U.S. power grid from 2011 to 2014. As of February 2016, they are occurring at a rate of once every 4 days. “A major cyberattack on the U.S. electric grid could cause over $1 trillion in economic damage, estimates ThreatTrackSecurity.com.” (MacDonald, 2016, pg. 2).
For example, they can shut down cell phone towers, cut power to trains, and turn off airport landing lights. In early October of this year, cyberattacks blocked access to very popular websites like Twitter, Netflix, and Amazon. They targeted such popular websites so that they could make the public known of their presence and what they can do. The author states, “It would be silent but enormously destructive. The two sides could block access to the Global Positioning System, disrupt air traffic control and electric grids, and block access to the internet or fill popular websites with propaganda - causing widespread chaos and fear.” In this passage, the author gives many examples of what these hackers are capable of. In conclusion, hacking and cyberattacks can be very destructive to all aspects of
The United States is under attack. To be exact, the nation’s power grid is under attack in the form of cyber warfare. On May 21st, 2013 Congressmen Edward J. Markey and Henry A Waxman published a report that provided the findings from information that they had requested from over 150 utility companies (of which 60% responded). More than a dozen utilities reported “daily, constant, or frequent attempted cyber-attacks” (Markey & Waxman) with one utility reporting that they have about 10,000 attempted attacks per month!
Adam Segal’s “The Hacked World Order” reveals many prevalent issues in today’s technologically centered society. Starting at Year Zero, June 2012 to June 2013, the battle over cyberspace witnessed world-changing cyberattacks. This was accomplished due to the fact that nearly 75% of the world’s population has easy access to a mobile phone, and the Internet connects nearly 40% of the total human population, which is nearly 2.7 billion people. With that being said, cyberattacks are becoming a more realistic form of terror.
The United States government needs to focus less on physical warfare and more on cyber warfare.
For thousands of years warfare remained relatively unchanged. While the tactics and weapons have changed as new methods of combat evolved, men and women or their weapons still had to meet at the same time and place in order to attack, defend, surrender or conquer. However, the advent of the of the internet has created a new realm of combat in which armies can remotely conduct surveillance, reconnaissance, espionage, and attacks from an ambiguous and space-less digital environment. Both state and non-state actors have already embraced this new realm and utilized both legal and illegal means to further facilitate their interests. What complicates cyber security further is as states attempt to protect themselves from cyber-warfare, private
Most nations today fear terror attacks that include bombing use of reinforcements like machines guns and other firearms. This is because terror attacks most of the times leave many people dead and others disabled while others are left without families. However, there is another attack today in many nations that can be destructive like a terror attack and this is the cyber-attack and threats. Cyber-attacks can be responsible for large mass destructions by making all systems connected to cyber networks fail to work (Rhodes 20). An example is the Morris worm that affected the world cyber infrastructures and caused them to slow down to a position of being impractical. Therefore, as a result of these cyber-attacks resources are being established and designed to help counter the attacks.
A lot of opinions and meanings has been given to the word “Cyberterrorism”. Some of these meanings and definitions varies. In this light, Gordon and Ford (2003) are concerned that when 10 people define cyberterrorism and nine of the given answers are different, and these 10 people represent different government agencies tasked with safeguarding national assets and infrastructure, then it becomes a critical issue.
The branches of the military, for a couple generations, have always been the Army, Navy, Air force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard; however, in an ever evolving digital world, the notion that outer space would be the next military front is being rapidly replaced by the idea that cyber space will be the next arms race. The United States has been defending attacks on their infrastructure day after day, night after night, when one hacker on one side of the world sleeps, another takes their place to attempt to compromise the US government. The motives may range from a political ‘hacktivist’ trying to prove a point, to an economic spy, trying to gain a competitive edge on its more upstart rivals, to an attempt to control the United States
The backbone of the U.S. economy, security, and health are known as the critical infrastructure. The critical infrastructure includes power, water, transportation and communications systems. The SCADA is Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition which are servers that collect critical information to keep a facility online. A worm virus can spread to the SCADA and interfere with the facility operations, an example would be the Stuxnet worm which cause issues with Iran power plant. According to Kelley (2013), the Stunxet reportedly destroyed about a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges causing them to spin out of control with the intent to reduce the lifetime of the centrifuges, (Kelley, 2013). The worm caused a lot of delays with the
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the article Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones, phones are now sharing hardware and software similar to a PC and becoming each time more like a PC. Therefore, the risks of being hacked are increasing, allowing hackers to attack mobile devices the same way as if they were doing it with a regular PC. Personal and professional information are more often stored on mobile devices therefore it is imperative to have our data secure. Security solutions for mobile devices are not as broad or high-tech as those for PCs. The majority of mobile security relies on the proper use and smart choices that the user makes on a daily basis to be protected against cyber attacks. Even the most careful person can be attacked but the possibilities of that happening are less when you are proactive.
The damage of a full-fledged cyber attack would be devastating, the destruction would be unparalleled to any other tragedy that has occurred America. Since technology is responsible for providing America with vital entities and resources, an unadulterated cyber attack would nearly fail the American economy; this is what is known as critical systems failure. Weapons of mass destruction and cyber attacks present imminent threats of critical systems failure. Although currently Americas’ critical infrastructures are coordinated by controlled systems, majority of these systems are indeed connected to the American cyberspace. This exposes one of America’s most vulnerable spot amidst cyber security. Another major vulnerable spot within the nations IT security would be the geographical physical location for each of Americas primary infrastructures, as well as their productivity. Due to the proximal locations, the major infrastructures could very well be infiltrated by one efficient CNA.
Cyber Security also called computer security and IT security, is the assurance of data from theft or any harm to the gadget, the product and information stored on hardware. It incorporates controlling physical access to the equipment and additionally ensuring against code or data injection or via network access.
The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines cyber security measures taken to protect a computer or computer system (as on the Internet) against unauthorized access or attack Most people think that hackers are just people that want to mess up your computer, but real hackers break into systems because they want to see what they can do, then they might leave a message on the victims computer, but that’s it. So, the computer security people protect from those other hackers that want to mess up peoples computers. The means we take can as individual to protect ourselves in the cyber world is be anyomous on websites, don’t post your personal information ,have virus protection install on your computer, get spy