According to a report in CNN today the next large scale military or terrorist attack on the United States maybe a cyber one.
Internet security experts believe such an attack could be just as devastating to the U.S.’s economy and infrastructure as a deadly bombing.
Experts point to last week’s cyber attack on the former Soviet republic of Georgia,
Hackers mounted coordinated assaults on Georgian government, media, banking and transportation sites in the weeks before Russian troops invaded.
Known as distributed denial of service, the attacks employ multiple computers to flood networks with millions of simultaneous requests, overwhelming servers and crippling Web sites.
“Nobody’s come up with a way to prevent this from happening, even here in the U.S.,” said Tom Burling, acting chief executive of Tulip Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia, Web-hosting firm that volunteered its Internet servers to protect the nation of Georgia’s Web sites from malicious traffic.
“The U.S. is probably more Internet-dependent than any place in the world. So to that extent, we’re more vulnerable than any place in the world to this kind of attack,” Burling added. “So much of what we’re doing in the US is out there on the Internet, and all of that can be taken down at once.”
Some Internet-security experts believe that the Georgia conflict marks the first time a known cyberattack has coincided with a ground war, but others said that similar computer attacks have accompanied military operations in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The challenge to U.S. security experts is that such attacks can be mounted anonymously, and relatively cheaply, from anywhere in the world. Georgia’s attackers employed “botnets,” or malicious automated programs that take root undetected in far-flung computers and barrage their targets with useless data. By last Friday, some of those botnets were originating from Comcast Internet addresses in the United States, Burling said.
“It only takes a couple of experts; it doesn’t take a whole cyber infantry division to pull something like this off,” said Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence for SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based computer security firm. “For a very small investment in resources, you can have a huge impact.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security created a National Cybersecurity Center this year to coordinate federal cyberdefense efforts and quicken responsiveness.
However, a A recent Homeland Security Department intelligence report, concluded that there are no effective means to prevent a coordinated attack on U.S. Web sites.
The CNN report went on to say that utilities are particularly subject to such a cyber attack.
Sounds like the script for DieHard 3.
“However, a A recent Homeland Security Department intelligence report, concluded that there are no effective means to prevent a coordinated attack on U.S. Web sites.
The CNN report went on to say that utilities are particularly subject to such a cyber attack.”
Impossible. George Bush and Fox have told us that regardless of how bad things are economically- they proved right that as long as we stay the course in Ira and keep Osama’s driver and all the other dangerous cyber criminals in Cuba- we are safe. Nothing to worry about.
After all if he convinced you Osama could plan and command an attack with airplanes as missiles from a cave with no electricity or servers then it’s no wonder why people bought .mobi and .me and will not have that money under the mattress when its needed. Looks like that day is coming soon. 🙂
The Russians probably just leased the botnets from their Chinese friends for the duration of the attack. Botnets are almost a commodity these days.
PS: I’ve actually been born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. Hits close to home a bit.
“Sounds like the script for DieHard 3.”
You mean DieHard 5.
Patrick
Interesting post – by just reading the response to the post I can sense the FEAR.
Do NOT live your life in FEAR – Living life in FEAR is a LIfe in Prison (sentenced by your own mind).
A meteorite can hit planet earth when you sleep and trigger another ice age and other million of things can happen.
Terrorist do NOT exist but ONLY Criminals which are in all walks of life.
Don’t worry be happy
btw, When considering who has the experience to be President, think about the changing dynamics of business and life and how the Internet has disrupted every business model. You don’t have to worry about putting up a border fence when even the creative and product jobs which their holders think as secure as bedrock, are being lost at odesk.com every day.
In addition, the Internet shrinks time and distance and allows home-based entrepreneurs the ability to leverage alliances and SaaS, to do the business of 1000 stores and 10,ooo employees, faster, better and more profitably. Therefore costs should go DOWN and wealth UP.
So why is government BIGGER and everything MORE expensive? Because there is no leadership at the top who has mandated the Internet as a #1 priority to secure, and to apply to drive down costs and taxes and open new opportunities for innovation and success.
I get concerned when a candidate admits to needing an employee to retrieve and print his email while the other is opening his email every day to 10 million subject lines such as “notification of payment received.”
Take that skill and possibility to unlock the incredible power of the Internet and put it in the hands of each and every American, and we can solve our biggest challenges, reduce or eliminate taxes and start taking back all of the wealth and success we have been sending out.
Owen
As always an interesting point of view.
The only problem I have with plan is that until it kicks in taxes are going up, way up for those who make money.
Hard to vote to double your taxes