Cyber-terrorism Essay -- cyber attacks, 2015

"It is now clear that cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation," President Obama has said in one of his addresses to the nation. He would go on the say that "We know that cyber intruders have probed our electrical grid, and that in other countries cyber attacks have plunged entire cities into darkness." (Net Security.org, 2009) When the president of the United States puts this much emphasis into a subject it shows how important it is and how big of an impact it could have on the nation. The United States is very dependent on digital networks due to the fact that almost everything is controlled by computers. Terrorist organizations and hostile countries are aware of this and an attack on our networks could be crippling to our economy. It would bring the most powerful and influential nation to a standstill. This is why president Obama has expressed the need for increased security measures because a cyber war is a reality tha t could happen soon that we must be prepared for. When a person thinks of the different types of warfare they would probably think of the more common types seen in the past wars like guerilla warfare, chemical warfare, and biological warfare. But in the present day and age a new warfare has emerged. It is the cyber warfare. This type of warfare is when an outside power may chose to attack the network or power grid with means of harmful intent. An example of this can be seen when hackers released a series of cyber attacks on Brazil’s power grid and left cities and parts of the country powerless for up to a few days. In result to this, Brazil lost millions upon millions of dollars and its economy was at a standstill. An incident that happened to the United States that helped make the security of networks front and center was in 2007 when the theft of terabytes of information was taken from the Department of Defense, The Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Energy and Nasa because of a breach in by a foreign power. This followed by another intrusion of the CENTCOM network which is used by the Department of Defense to relay information for actions in the wars America is currently in. This attack was believed to be a backdoor attack through corrupted memory sticks and thumbnail drives. Foreign powers that staged this attack were able to see and in... ...f the Center for Strategic and International Studies summed up the United States and its stance on cyber wars as this: "We have, at best, a few years to get our defenses in order, to build robustness and resiliency into networks and critical infrastructure, and to modernize our laws to allow for adequate security. Our current defenses are inadequate to repel the attacks of a sophisticated opponent. The United States is far more dependent on digital networks than its opponents and this asymmetric vulnerability means that the United States would come out worse in any cyber exchange." (Net Security.org, 2009) Works Cited cbsnews.com. (2009, November 8). Cyber War: Sabotaging the System. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from 60 Minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/06/60minutes/main5555565.shtml Net Security.org. (2009, November 09). Cyber war is coming, the impact could be huge. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from Help Net Security: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8484 Net Security.org. (2009, October 27). Serious cyber attacks on the horizon. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from Help Net Security: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8439