Everybody knows the basic rules while netsurfing, such as: install anti-virus and anti-spyware softwares, keep your security softwares updated, use passwords or do not install any programm you are unsure of. The question is : is it sufficient? Here's a frightening video of what cyber terror can look like. It has been broadcasted on the History Channel where Gregory Evans, the founder and CEO of LIGATT Security demostrates how computer can be used in cyber terror.
After the September 11 terrorist attack, groups of hackers began to talk in the Internet to express their anger. A group called the Dispatchers said they would destroy web servers and Internet access in Afghanistan and nations supporting terrorists. On the other side, muslim hackers started to attack american websites. This shows that the Internet has become a real battleground, and conflicts are taking a cyber dimension. Computer networks attacks have become a serious and growing threat. The website of the Computer Crime Research Center published an extract from a speech made by Richard Clarke, former special adviser for Cyberspace security to George Bush, in the December following the events of the September 11 : "Our enemies will use our technology against us... The fact that they may be form a Third World country should not in any way suggest to us that they will not understand how to use our technology. They will see the places where we did not think we needed to build in security and they will take advantage of those seams".
I don't know if you feel threaten by a terrorist attack by means of the Internet, and if you believe that an hypothetical Word War III could happen thanks to new technologies. Anyway, I am not sure we, individually, can do anything to protect ourselves against such a threat.
As far as I am concerned, I think we should take a less alarmist approach to the potential of an electronic attack but remain concerned.
MM
There is danger-Street scent
15 years ago
Breaking into a computer network is not so easy... In a well-designed and well-maintained network, valuable data or critical systems can't be reached from an end-user computer - it needs administrative access to the core systems, which requires one or two additional levels of authentication - these authentications require "brute-force" cracking methods which are very time-consuming.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, even if breaking into a WiFi network was easy few years ago due to the vulnerabilities of the WEP protocol, newer encryption & authentication protocols called WPA or WPA2 are available now. Every single residential ADSL access router/modem sold at this time is supposed to support these protocol.
My two cents : make sure your ADSL box has WPA protocol enabled, avoid weak passwords (http://psynch.com/docs/choosing-good-passwords.html) and store all your passwords in a safe place (avoid Excel spreadsheets or "Notepad" clear text files). You can use Password Safe (http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/) or KeyPass (http://keepass.info/) to store your passwords, it's safe, it's free and these softwares have a very small footprint on computers.
PS : hackers breaking into nuclear defense systems inspired the scenario of WARGAMES, the famous movie - do you remember ? http://www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=WARGAMES