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Stop Cyber Warfare Before It Happens Essay

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Shortly after the horrendous violations of human rights by the Nazi’s, in 1949 the Geneva Convention was created. This fourth treaty was established to create the rules and regulations of what is expectable in times of warfare. It gives protection to civilians in times when war tares families and countries apart. President Obama speaking on the importance of the fourth Geneva Convention stated, “We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend…And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard” (“President”). Today Americans face a new type of conflict, one that many consider as the fifth breed of warfare, and answers by the name cyber warfare (“Threat”). Peculiarly, cyber …show more content…

Electrical grids are controlled by computers. Until granting consideration to it, computers and the impact they have on individual lives, go undetected. Americans exist in cyber cocoons. Take airlines, for example, if a cyber attack were to succeed against an airline, airplanes could crash killing thousands. A neo 9/11 could occur without a single terrorist or foreign enemy ever having to touch U.S. soil. On the other hand, consider an attack against one of the 104 nuclear power plants in the United States (Dedman). A skilled enemy could hack into a nuclear power plants computer system, and within minutes overheat the volatile nuclear reactor.
Perhaps cyber attacks of this sort would seem like nothing more than fear mongering and science fiction; however, such an attack has already occurred. Last year a virus dubbed Stuxnet attacked Iran’s nuclear power plant. Stuxnet swept across unconnected computer systems until it found away into the Iranian power plants system. From there it clandestinely took control of the system and manipulated it until it was so compromised it ceased normal function. After its purpose accomplishing its purpose, Stuxnet disappeared without a trace. Leaving the Iranian nuclear power plant in shambles, Stuxnet’s creators remain unknown, which is perhaps the most frightening of all facts (Sentence 2-5 Barnes). Con Coughlin, an expert in international terrorism stated, “Russian nuclear officials have warned of another

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