Technical And Administrative Vulnerabilities

Cyber-attacks against Sony Pictures brought the vulnerabilities of poor cyber security policies to light. These attacks are nothing new but they appear to be getting more severe. According to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, “Cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication, and

It is essential to understand America’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) and National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) to ensure survivability of its critical assets, while maintaining security for America. “The plans are carried out in practice by an integrated network of Federal departments and agencies, State and local government agencies, private sector entities, and a growing number of regional consortia (DHS, 2009, p. I).” Several agencies work together to mitigate attacks on CIKR to protect public safety and security of the nation. A terrorist may stop at nothing to carry out an attack on CIKR. If an attack or natural disaster does transpire, each agency working together to restore the damage must be timely. Additionally, NIPP helps to identify hazards associated with the various sectors, and provides necessary security measures to harden resources (DHS,

One of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) most important missions is protecting critical infrastructure. Assessing CI vulnerabilities is critical to strengthening their capabilities and ensuring resiliency. Since most of them are privately owned, the Department partners with the private sector in conducting voluntary, non-regulatory vulnerability assessments (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). According to Homeland Security (2015), vulnerability assessments are the foundation National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) which outlines how the government and the private sector work together to manage risks to achieve security and resiliency goals (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). Protecting America’s electrical power grid is especially complicated because all of the other CIs depend on the energy sector’s

The Department of Homeland Security supplies a national protection plan concerning critical infrastructure security. This plan targets a wide audience, including public and private critical infrastructure owners and administrators. Managing risks through identifying, deterring, and disrupting threats to critical infrastructure is the direct focus of this plan. The ability of an organization to reduce the impact of a threat that has occurred and reducing the impact of one that may occur is essential to an active security posture. Compromise of a critical infrastructure such as oil, airports, or traffic flow management could result in a major loss of life or resources (Department of Homeland Security, 2013).

With any network organization you want to make sure that you keep on top of vulnerabilities of anything that reaches out to the internet. Computers and servers that touch the internet are ones that must be scanned. As a company you have to make sure that you configure the security settings for the operating system, internet

Since the September 11, 2001 events, the United States of America gravitated towards a more aggressive approach in its security. The result of the tragic events was the establishment of homeland security. The White House, the federal government and the Congress joined together to establish it. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush issued an executive order 13228 to establish an Office of Homeland Security within the White House and assigning the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge as its Director (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2013, p. 4). Ever since, the United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security diversified and evolved the way it is today. The Homeland Defense was also integrated into Homeland Security to protect the U.S. soil and its territories. However, what are Homeland Security and Homeland Defense? This paper will address those question as well as covering their missions/goals, tasks, duties, and responsibilities. In addition, a section of this paper is the assessment of the critical infrastructure protection programs of the U.S. The assessment will also include the overall capability of the nation’s critical infrastructure protection program to ensure the survivability of its critical infrastructure.

One key issue in Homeland Security and Emergency Management is the threat to cyber security. Terrorism has evolved over the years to more sophisticated and planned out attacks. Some of the attacks are stopped before the plans are carried out thanks to our nations Homeland Security experts, but many attacks go unnoticed by the public and security professionals, this is because of the method of cyberterrorism. Cyberterrorism can be described as varied as stealing data and hacking, planning terrorist attack, causing violence, or attacking information systems (Foltz,2004). The act of cyberterrorism leaves many people and our nation vulnerable if the terrorist is successful at stealing critical

The term Critical Infrastructure did not come into use until the mid-1990’s. Since the 1970’s there have been 2,723 terrorist attacks that have taken place in the United States, causing a total of 3,570 deaths. About seventy-five (75) percent of those attacks targeted critical infrastructures. Critical Infrastructures (CI) and systems constitute high-value targets (Forest & Howard, 2013). Executive order EO 13010 Critical Infrastructure Protection was issued by president Bill Clinton on July 15th, 1996. This executive order addressed the concerns

Post 9/11 the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection acknowledge the interlinking systems and dependencies within our critical infrastructures poses many vulnerabilities which would allow adversary incapable

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

This paper covers homeland security and homeland defense and how they are both interpreted according to national strategies and current policies. There are defining differences between homeland security and homeland defense. This starts by identifying how missions, tasks, duties, responsibilities, operations, and others key areas are implemented. Also, being able to determine necessary resources and the shared responsibilities and efforts between the two will allow for a better understanding when drawing upon and defining homeland security. In addition, an assessment of the nation’s critical infrastructure and how it relates to homeland security and homeland defense will be described. This paper will further explore how vulnerabilities should be addressed as they relate to the nation’s infrastructure protection efforts.

Second, cyber-terrorism attacks need to be evaluated relative to the number of routine infrastructure failures. This is because cyber-terror attacks only pose a real threat to national security if the attacks are perpetrated on numerous infrastructures simultaneously for a long period of time. This would generate a noticeable effect and cause chaos. However, multiple sustained attacks on a variety of infrastructures are not a feasible scenario because hackers work to maximize their impact using as little resources as possible. Also, the redundancy inherent in infrastructures and the speed at which officials respond to any vulnerabilities would not allow for such attacks to happen at the rate they need to be to be considered an act of terror.

In this paper I will discuss a total of four Advanced Persistent Threat Groups (APT). I will discuss their motives, attack objectives, targets of the attacks, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP), and attack vectors. I will propose strategies that would deter and provide defense against the group or that type of threat. I will also discuss if the APT is state backed or if it is a rogue actor.

One of the fastest growing and challenging fields of law enforcement is the realm of cybersecurity and cybercrime prevention. Though the field is still in its infancy at the municipal level, there are many opportunities at the federal level that focus on matters of national security. Many countries are now dependent on internet-connected information systems that directly affect their critical infrastructure (Tofan, Andrei, & Dinca, 2012). Unfortunately, an attack against this critical infrastructure can completely cripple a nation, as evidenced in Estonia in 2007 (Shaikh & Kalutaragek, 2016). This particular attack is often seen as the first cyberattack on a nation’s critical infrastructure, and targeted governmental websites and financial institutions (Tofan et al., 2012). The attack lasted two weeks, and devastated the country’s network infrastructure (Tofan et al., 2012). Another recent example of the potentially disastrous effects of cyber-warfare is the 2010 Stuxnet attack on an Iranian nuclear reactor. In this particular event, the true dangers of a cyberattack were realized as sophisticated malware caused uranium enrichment centrifuges to fail (Singer, 2015). As the nature of cybercrime and cyber-espionage continues to evolve, law enforcement professionals will need to be hired and trained to meet the challenge head-on.

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