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
The US should not retaliate in a cyber-war because it can cause lots of damage to our water supply, cellphone towers, trains, airport landing lights, and even our daily lives. If we were to go to war with Russia or another country that is more experienced in hacking, the results would be terrible. The other country would be able to malfunction our airplane equipment. They could make the plane go out of control, malfunction the landing gear, or take complete control over the plane. They could hack into our banks and take our money which would leave the country in debt. They could damage the stock markets and make any company go down dramatically in business.
When considering the technological advances over the past 50 years, the Internet has undoubtedly had the greatest impact on everyday life of developed economies and its citizens. The world has become smaller, societies interconnected, and the pace of global integration dramatically increased since the introduction of the Internet. With the world connected, cyber actors represent a very real and often underestimated threat to the United States’ ability to defend national security, protect industrial innovation, and secure privacy information. As a result of globalization, the foreign cyber actors represent the most imminent threat to national security, corporate innovation, and citizen privacy rights.
The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and its revised version S.3414 addressed several cyber security needs, which have been often overlooked or opposed. The nation stands vulnerable to cyber-attacks, as everyday technology is revamped and upgraded, while laws to protect the nation creep slowly through Congress. Many politicians have argued that these bills have imposed too much regulation on the cyber world and therefor oppose it (CITATION NEEDED). Congress needs to pass laws and regulations if they wish to help protect the nation from the growing threat of cyber-attacks, which can easily cripple the United States from across the globe. The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report reveals that the threat of cybercrime is a growing concern.
The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil
Nuclear silos launching warheads. Power plants exploding. Water systems contaminated. Currency devalued and locked away. Vehicles simultaneously going haywire all at once. That could be just the first 10 minutes of reports simultaneously reaching the President of the United States. How could all of these disasters happen? Simply put, all of these scenarios involve components which rely on the use of cyberspace. While citizens of the United States have been increasing our dependence on the use of computer systems in all walks of life, we citizens have been becoming systematically and increasingly more exposed to the possibilities of cyberattacks and by extension all out cyberwarfare. Is
Cyber security is a major concern for every department, business, and citizen of the United States because technology impacts every aspect of our daily lives. The more we use technology the more complacent, we get with the information that is stored within our cyber networks. The more complacent, we get, the more vulnerable we become to cyber-attacks because we fail to update the mechanisms that safeguard our information. Breaches to security networks are detrimental to personal, economic, and national security information. Many countries, like Russia, China, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom, now have the abilities and technology to launch cyber-attacks on the United States. In the last five years there have been several attacks on cyber systems to gain access to information maintained by major businesses and the United States Government. Cyber-attacks cause serious harm to the United States’ economy, community, and the safety, so we need to build stronger cyber security mechanisms. Based on my theoretical analysis, I recommend the following:
On July 2015 the Obama administration revealed that a significant cyber attack affected government computer systems. The Obama administration admitted that more than 20 million government workers were affected by the cyber attack. During the cyber attack hackers were able to gain access to personal information that included Social Security numbers and fingerprints. Besides gaining access to Social Security numbers and fingerprints the hackers were also able to steal home addresses, financial history, and other sensitive information. This cyber attack alone affected 19 million government workers and over 1 million spouses. The administration indicated that the cyber attack was separate but related to another cyber attack that
This sector is an integral component to your nation’s economy, operations of all businesses, as well as public and government organizations. In addition, this sector is mainly operated by the private sector (Critical Infrastructure Sectors, 2016). These reasons are why I feel this sector is most vulnerable for attack. With the majority of the sector ran by private companies and the critical nature of this sector makes it a prime area for attack. The chaos which would ensue due an attack on this sector could be devastating. With the loss of communication our nation could not function.
Wars have been occurring since the beginning of time. Wars were once fought with sticks but as humans evolved, so did the weapons involved. Today’s warfare includes anything from hand grenades to remote controlled planes that are thousands of miles away from the operator. The rise of technology has become an issue due to the increasing development of these devices. Technology is used worldwide and as wars continue to develop, so does the possibility that the next war could rise into a cyber war. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act will ensure the United States takes on these new threats with cybercrime by protecting the country’s critical infrastructures and ensuring the people are ready for the future in the cyberworld.
According to the director of National Intelligence James Clapper, “The cyber warfare threat facing the United States is increasing in scope and scale and its impact is difficult to overstate” (Jason and Steve 6). Now the United State of America is also under the threat of Cyberwarfare; people must get known about their rights and ways to protect them self, also the big origination holding the public records should be alerted and the precaution should must taken right away for the safe side. Looking towards the issues of cyberwarfare in United States of America, four aspects should be taken in consideration that is what is cyberwarfare, how it works, offensive of it and defensive of it.
Secretary Johnson, this memo is being addressed to you on the basis that the foreign policy issue that is threats to cyber security is of interest to the Department of Homeland Security. In brief explanation of the issue at hand, it can be concluded that the major foreign policy problem of cyber security threats has created and will continue to create imitate danger to the United States of America. The act of breaching the security sustained around private networks has become renowned as a type of terrorism, one that has rapidly evolved since the beginning of the 21st century and has gained even more strength with the increased use of computers. This threat has the potential to risk the exposure of the nation’s most valuable information including government documents, military plans that are considered top secret, and even the United States power grid. The convenience and the ease of use has made this threat greater as individuals conducting what has become known as cyber attacks can be thousands of miles away from the network they hack into. In order for this threat to be combated efficiently, a brief history based around the issue must be conducted as well as an examination of possible alternatives before concluding with the best proposed solution that will bring this threat under control and ultimately aim to eliminate it.
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.
It has been concluded to the public that no act of cyberterrorism has occurred in the United States that would ruin the status of the country, but then President Obama has declared that cyber-attacks are one of the biggest threats that the United States could face and declaring it to be a national emergency if it occurs. The results that come from
Since 2010 there have been over 13 major cyber attacks in the US, the FBI categorizes the severity of the attack based on what could possibly be at stake such as information on US citizens or hijacking of critical information . Cyber attacks are classified as crimes committed with the aid of a computer. Cyber crimes are considered felonies, however most people who commit the crimes can usually not be found. Recently there has been an uprising in cyber crimes, in the year 2017 alone 9 minor incidents have occured (minor attacks can consist of malware and internet “trolling” which is a form of cyberbullying) and 4 major crimes have been committed. Most crimes consist of identity theft, robbery, and hijacking private information. Recently programmers have been able to build security systems that can detect a threat almost immediately. With a growing expansion of technology protecting information gets harder day by day. Cyber security is the body of technologies, processes and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access.
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.