Introduction to Today’s Threats of Cyber Attacks

As the world becomes more and more technology dependent and savvy, we will encounter international conflicts being fought in cyberspace rather than in physical space. Even though it would seem that cyber warfare would have less devastating effects on a nation, cyber invasions can in fact pose a larger threat to a country’s security. With new sophisticated systems, cyber attackers can not only hack into secure networks and acquire secret government, business, and military information and data, but can also use electronic strikes to cause power outages and physical destruction to entire systems and equipment.  

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns “that that the cyber threat to critical infrastructure systems -- to electrical, financial, water, energy, food supply, military, and telecommunications networks -- is grave” (Vijayan).  The U.S. is working on strengthening its cyber defenses for government and the private sector; however, many people are unaware of how large scale these attacks are. General Keith Alexander, the commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, reported that the largest theft in history is due to cyber hacking and theft. According to Gen. Alexander, private corporations and the government have suffered a loss of $1 trillion worth of data and information (Gertz). The issue with this information loss is that it makes it easier for an enemy to plan an attack on a country. The more knowledge say a foreign nation's military or a terrorist obtains the higher the changes of a successful mission. For this reason among others, the Pentagon declared that “a computer attack from a foreign nation can be considered an act of war that may result in a military response” (Sanger). Regardless of this defense strategy, there is often a problem with identifying the cyber attacker, whether it’s a country or private hacker.

This new domain of technological warfare poses many concerns nationally and internationally. It would seem that an increase use of cyber attacks can only create international conflicts in the future. The thought that a nation can hack into other countries' private databases and leak information, will most likely result in mistrustful relationships between nations. In the next couple weeks, I will be addressing recent examples of cyber attacks on nations and their damaging results, hypothetical consequences of cyber warfare, and the impacts of cyber attacks on society as a whole.   

Gertz, Bill. “Computer-based Attacks Emerge As Threat Of Future, General Says.” The New York Times . N.p., 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://www.washingtontimes.com/‌news/‌2011/‌sep/‌13/‌computer-based-attacks-emerge-as-threat-of-future-/‌?page=all>.

Sanger, David E., and Elisabeth Bumiller. “Pentagon to Consider Cyberattacks Acts of War.” The New York Times  31 May 2011: A10. The New York Times . Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/‌2011/‌06/‌01/‌us/‌politics/‌01cyber.html>.

Vijayan, Jaikumar. “10 Years After 9/‌11, Cyberattacks Pose National Threat...” Computerworld 7 Sept. 2011: n. pag. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://www.computerworld.com/‌s/‌article/‌9219756/‌10_years_after_9_11_cyberattacks_pose_national_threat_committee_says>.