Dear Senator Robert Casey Jr.,
I am writing to you because I am a petrified citizen. I am concerned because of the many recent cyber attacks that have happened. Many other people are probably very worried about their information being put out there on the dark web too.
Then Equifax was attacked which has about 326 million customers. The hackers took social security numbers, passwords and birthdates. With this important information, they can use it to impersonate the person’s stolen identity, and create other accounts under their name.
With so many cyber attacks happening, people and the government need to take action against the online attackers. I noticed that you are on the National Security Working Group which includes cyber security
Equifax is one of the three most important credit card reporting agencies that provide information on a person’s credit report. Recently, a small group of criminal and unethical hackers hacked into Equifax. The hack exposed the criminals to millions of social security numbers, birthdates, names and much more. The agency is supposed to be highly secured and trustworthy for most. This incident has put the identity of millions in critical conditions. By describing the threat, protecting against it by using browser and tools, and having good judgment there are several ways to handle a hack like this.
Cyberattacks can range from instantaneous to time-delayed and staged in several waves. Attackers can often go as anonymous and can even frame other people. There are also no clear ways to figure out an attacker’s motive or if they are acting alone or as a group. Due to the open-nature of the Internet, it is easier to organize an attack rather than defend against one. Developed countries are also more prone to cyberattacks because of their heavy reliance on technology. Furthermore, many countries categorize cyberthreats as a law enforcement issue rather than a national security threat. This means they are more focused on a set trial and conviction based on criminal intent and a criminal act. Meanwhile, a national security threat can be dealt with based on the severity of the situation. Overall, there is no global consensus on how to effectively deal with
Due to common vulnerability is known as cross-site scripting on the website can allow hackers to send specific links to the customers and if the links are clicked then the credentials will show to the hackers. Equifax website is facing a lot of hacking issues for many years and the infrastructure is weird, it looks like they really don’t care about the security. There is no evidence that the software could allow a serious breach of data. The company should discuss this issue with the management and other employees and group the computer security incident response team with the proper planning, rules, policy, measures, security, budget, and they should work on the old IT systems that could be lack of renewal ways and old unpatched software.”Equifax software shouldn’t have allowed so much information to get access to via a breach of its public-facing web applications, it definitely needs possible to do what happened if security was sound, Equifax servers were using out-of-date java software”
There is a new threat to the world, cyberspace. New technologies are being developed daily that threaten secure organizations. Attackers are able to take advantage of any vulnerability that they can find no matter the geological location. This threat poses risks to the economy, militaries, and governments around the world. The U.S. is at the forefront of the defense of cyber security, but with the endless number of cyber terrorists, the U.S. defense is not enough. Nations need to come together to provide a standard for cyber security that is able to be enforced throughout the world. The many different organizations provide many avenues of approach for various attackers to take advantage of the vulnerabilities in cyber defense. The only way to prevent these attacks is for the U.S. and its international partners to develop a strategy for global cyber security. Actions are currently being taken by many of the U.S. 's allies, yet there is still much work to be done. The enforcement of cyber security standards must take place in all government organizations, and similar standards should be followed by civilian corporations. This new cyber-warfare must be regulated and controlled just like any other battlespace.
In this day and age, the risks of cyber-attacks have seemingly become more prevalent through aggressions done by both foreign and domestic terrorists acting out in response towards either religious, political, or financial consciences. These attacks consist of hackers possessing abilities that can alter digital perspectives of banking and also the capability to adjust physical aspect like water systems and even nuclear power plants. The relevance in emphasizing the importance of cyber-security is directly related to the growing number of foreign attacks done unto the American people and how these attacks must be further met by improved security in order to combat cyber termism from causing any more harm. To begin researching on how these attacks may be vanquished, one must first relate back to the source of these strikes− this pertain to either the countries or groups responsible−as well as the effects of these attacks of American lifestyles and the potential human security faults that correlate with them. Lastly, the role in both Government and private business must be looked at as well in order to make sure that the privacy among American citizens and their identity are being handled safely and with the utmost security available in order to counter attacks done by these elite hacking groups.
Our critical infrastructure is vital to our nation’s operations and any disruption to services can have catastrophic outcomes to critical components of our country’s assets. The private sector owns approximately 90% of our critical infrastructure and dependencies between systems make it difficult to show critical cyber threats within the United States. Threats between state and non-state actors continue to exponentially destabilize security and privacy. Although attacks to date haven’t caused extensive overwhelming disruptions, the potential is substantial. Antagonistic nations or terrorists may use cyber-based tools to upset military operations, networks, or other critical operations. Policy maker’s decisions have influenced protection of critical infrastructure key resources and the overarching goal of the NIPP is to build a safer, more resilient and secure nation by mitigating the threats of deliberate attacks by adversaries that exploit our nation’s CIKRs. Understanding and building partnerships between government, private, and public sectors, sharing information about threats and other dangers shall build stewardship to CIKR protection programs.
All the consumers affected were also made vulnerable to subsequent identity theft given malicious attackers stole their personal data. Equifax was directly affected since its stock began to plunge immediately the news was made public. Additionally, the corporate governance of the company was tarnished given three Equifax executives sold shares worth around $2 million days after the breach discovery, and the “retiring” of the chief security information officers is questionable (Surane & Melin, 2017). Also, the company was exposed to litigations with some lobbyists and interest groups pushing regulators to hold Equifax accountable for the negligence and poor treatment of affected consumers. The proposed new data security laws will present a greater burden to other corporations. Two such laws are the Promoting Responsible Oversight of Transactions and Examinations of Credit Technology (PROTECT), and Freedom From Equifax Exploitation (FREE) will attract more government scrutiny and limit the type of personal data that companies can collect from customers (Alperan, Carter, & Sofio, 2017).
among many policymakers in the US and the world at large. “Lifting the Veil on Cyber Offense”
Cyberspace is particularly difficult to secure due to a number of factors: the ability of malicious attackers to operate from anywhere in the world, legally connecting cyberspace and physical systems, and the difficulty of reducing known vulnerabilities to cyber networks. One of the most popular growing concerns is the cyber threat to businesses and government critical infrastructure, which has become one of the primary targets for cyber terrorist. (Cybersecurity) As information on the web becomes increasingly integrated with everyone’s day-to-day operations, there is an increased risk of wide scale harm or disruption of services upon which our economy and the daily lives of millions of Americans depend. With this risk and potential consequences of cyber events, strengthening the security and resilience of cyberspace should be one of the major goals of the world. (Cybersecurity)
The modern technology in the world is growing day by day. So to enable faster and simpler networking, the countries are developing and expanding their technology. Currently there are billions of Internet user and mobile phone connections all over the world. People all around the world are very much depended on consistent access of these channels. Popularity for Internet based networking is growing exponentially, but it come at a cost. The cost is the cyber attack and crimes are increasing rapidly around the world. The attacks like email staking, hacking computers, virus attacks, etc. There was one major cyber attack in year 2000, where around 45 million computer were attacked by the computer virus all around the world[1]. There are
Most nations don’t have a national policy exclusively focused on opposing cyber-crime. Somewhat, there are other, wide-ranging strategies that have the cyber-crime components. Policymakers may question whether there should be a distinctive strategy for contesting cyber-crime or whether struggles to control these criminalities are best addressed through further wide-ranging policies, such as that directing cyber
Businesses and private individuals need to confront the issue of cyber-crime head on and implement technology and procedures to aid the deterrence of information technology breaches.
In the cyber world, there are many challenges that face all inhabitants. These challenges are more wide ranging every day. All users have to be more vigilant in reducing these challenges. Individuals and groups have to do their due diligence in mitigating these risks.
Cybercrime is one of today 's most criminal acts , it is a different kind of crime where there can be no physical contact involved. Criminals now can be sitting behind a computer , on the other side of the world stealing precious information from you. Common cyber attacks can involve stealing of intellectual property, gaining confidential information, fraud by accessing personal information and overall a malicious threat in order to produce a financial or political benefit. Cybercrime today is now a bigger risk than ever before due to the increasing development of the internet and digital technology services. There is a growing trend in the internet and digital technologies where transactions, services and data storage is all kept, making it vulnerable for online attacks. Attackers exploit vulnerability in hardware , software and user behaviour. They take advantage of people who fail to follow basic cyber security practices such as, regularly updating their passwords, updating their antivirus software and using protected wireless networks .Norton Antivirus has stated that cyber crime has been so severe that it has even surpassed the likes of drug- trafficking ( Norton 2015) . It has become a major issue that all governments and businesses will need to look at implementing security defences. With the growing severity of cyber attacks, small countries are very vulnerable as they may not have the same defences as large countries . New Zealand and Estonia are examples of
The internet has become a vital way for organizations and the government to share and collect information. The rapid increase in the use of new technologies has made it difficult for the law to keep up with immerging threats. Cybercrimes were up 10.4% in 2014, and it does not look like the threats will be decreasing anytime soon (Kassner, 2014). The country and organizations, need to be aware of the threats out there and protect their systems.