preview

Cyber Attacks On American Society

Decent Essays

The Internet has changed and advanced modern society in unimaginable ways since its conception. Banks, transportation, entertainment, and even power and sewer systems are now controlled and operated through the Internet. This has allowed major improvements to society as a whole. Power is now delivered more reliably, many people can now access their banking information remotely from their phones, shopping can be done completely from the comforts of the home, as well as many other amazing things. All of these things are convenient and helpful, but have exposed American citizens and infrastructure to the new threat of cyber based attacks. These attacks can be directed at American institutions or to the general population. I believe that the threat …show more content…

What if someone hacked into the electric grid? Everything we use to make our nation run relies on power. Hospitals could be shut down, and trains and airports would be left sitting idle. Our nation could be in darkness. This kind of attack is much more serious than a person’s identity getting stolen or having their personal information compromised online. This kind of attack could affect everyone. One article states, “Since September 2012, US banks have been under intense distributed denial-of-service attacks that have disrupted services and have cost tens of millions of dollars to fend off” (Brenner 15). If these types of attacks were to work for an extended period of time, this could potentially ruin millions of people financially and cause havoc in our nation. The sheer amount of people potentially affected makes this kind of attack much more dangerous than at attack on an individual. In spite of all the cyber-attacks that occur on a daily basis, I believe the United States is active enough in countering these threats. Our power is supplied to us daily, for the most part our personal information is safe with companies, and we are able to trust mass transit and airports. When attacks do occur, companies and task forces are generally swift to act and can correct the issue in a matter of hours. If we lived in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to deal with these issues, but because these things exist we need to trust our great nation to keep us

Get Access