CYBER-TERRORISM: RISK & PROTECTION

 

 

Modern society tends to become more and more computer-dependent. Communications, transportation, Military, hospitals, electrical power and banking are all reliant on computer systems. Computer downtime in the above spheres can translate into huge losses for our economy or even loss of human life.

Occasionally, we hear stories about computer hackers breaking into various systems, stealing funds and classified information as well as disabling important functions. Over the past several years, computer insecurities have cost governments, the enterprise community not to mention home users, billions of dollars.  Knowing that one should bear in mind that most, if not all, of this virtual mayhem does not happen to be the work of the so-called “elite computer criminals”. It is usually committed by bored amateurs who cobbled together attack scripts that continue to be traded around the Internet like baseball cards.  The tools for computer attack are readily available on the Internet, and easily created computer scientists and engineers. 

What can happen if well-organized and highly professional teams hired by foreign governments, terrorist and/or criminal rings would purposefully attack the vital computer systems on which national wealth and security are dependent? The results can disastrous. In fact, under certain circumstances computer insecurity can be regarded as a national threat.

Who represents the primary target-group for cyber terrorism in Canada? The groups most susceptible to computer attacks are computer systems of the Government, large corporations, communications and transportation. It would be hard to believe terrorists or foreign special services, are not preparing such attacks or already have one prepared and ready to use at a convenient time. It would probably be too optimistic to believe that they are not currently testing our governmental systems and acquiring sensitive or classified information. If September 11 taught us anything, it is that all our systems are vulnerable, and often in the most blunt and simplistic ways. An attack on our computer infrastructure is inevitable, and will likely be much more devastating than any previous computer attack.  But there are things we can do now to minimize the devastation, or even prevent it completely.

 

No computer system can ever be fully secure: if you have access to the Internet the Internet has access to you.  However, computer security is “negative” from the structural perspective because it is in fact aimed at denying actions or access, or direct contact. Like a prophylactic, it tends to prevent certain bad things from happening while preserving most of the benefits of interaction.  As of today, there are two competing approaches to computer security: “security through obscurity” one based on the assumption that an exploitable defect will not be exploited because it is hidden, and “full disclosure” which works on the premise that the forewarned is forearmed.  Most security professionals nowadays prefer the latter approach, however, sadly most computer systems in existence still relay on the former.

 

Following the latter approach to computer security it is our goal to locate the “holes” and weak points in the computer network we need to protect, to view these points of entry from the attackers’ perspective, assess the likelihood of an attack, and suggest a set of counter-measures.  By mapping out the strong and weak points in the network, it would also be possible to create contacts between agencies to increase the overall security of the network.

 

Our computer specialists are also capable of tracing the intruders of the network in case such intrusion has already happened and get detailed information on their location, backgrounds and methods of attack.

 

Our specialists can also write unique software for your system that would protect your classified and other sensitive information from anyone who does not possess that original software and thus is unable to open and read your important files.

 

 

 

 

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FURTHER READING:

 

World on the brink global cyber warfare?

 

Online banking, transactions and security – how safe are we really?