Cyber Warfare

The threat of Cyber Warfare on our economy is very real and could potentially cripple this country if coordinated efforts by terrorist were successful. Most hackers attempt to break into systems for financial gain. Terrorist gangs are using these same techniques to hack into government systems and seriously threaten national security. Terrorist are attempting to at least disrupt or even destroy information and communication systems that could have devastating affects on our economy.
Attacks on financial institutions are very common and usually continue without notice. This is due to the fact that many people, believe it or not do not maintain there check registry. Therefore small amounts of money could go missing without notice to a number of people in this country and all over the world. In December of 2007 a trojen horse known as the SilentBanker was a cyber weapon that was released and affected various accounts in over 400 banks world wide. This SilentBanker is a trojen horse that records keystrokes, captures screen images and steals confidential information and sends it back to the hacker. In situation such as this it is important that people receive the latest updates from there security suite provider and to stay ahead of possible attacks. From my readings they have still not identified who is responsible for this attack, it could be a possible terrorist attack and the money collected could be used for purchasing weapons or financing terrorist attacks but no one really knows. It is a clear indication of how vulnerable our systems can be when sophisticated hackers successfully break into our banking systems unnoticed.
Attacks on government systems are a major threat as well. This past July the Associated Press reported attacks on several U.S. government agencies that included the White House, Secret Service, Pentagon, New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the Treasury Department, the Federal Trade Commission, NSA, FAA, Homeland Security, State Department and the Department of Transportation. The attacks are thought to be brought on the by the controversy surrounding the expansion of the National Security Agency’s cyber security. These sites were flooded with an overwhelming amount of denial of service attacks which resulted in several websites shutting down completely including the Secret Service, Trade, Treasury and Transportation sites. It appears that this was a very well planned and initiated by highly skilled hackers. In 2007 the U.S. government had 5500 breaches of security out of 16,000 attempts of accessing government systems. Once again pointing to the fact that our information systems and specialist have to stay one step ahead of potential terrorist and cyber warfare or at least be able to respond quickly in the event that an attack is successful.
According to McAfee Inc., cyber spying is the biggest threat to our economy. Espionage operations over the internet are becoming a major issue for all countries. It is found that many of these threats are originating in China which threatens targets such as electricity grids, air traffic control, financial markets and government agencies. These attacks are well funded and organized by terrorist groups and the U.S. and other nations must continue to stay ahead of this ongoing threat.