You screw you ’re dwell in the new millennium when one of the Obama government ’s newest positions is dub the " cyberczar . " In May 2009 , President Obama formally annunciate his plan to appoint a internal cybersecurity adviser , charge with protect estimator meshwork in the United States – which Obama referred to as " strategical national assets " – fromhackingand snoop [ source : Zetter ] .
Cybersecurity is n’t a fresh topic draw the rounds in Washington . In 2007 , the Commission on Cybersecurity for the forty-fourth President , within the Center for Strategic and International Studies , was tasked with examining public policy and issue surrounding cybersecurity and developing testimonial for its improvement . According to the commission ’s executive summary , the exposure of computer networks has become a national surety problem .
Computer hacking has evolved from a casual tech sport into a full - vaunt villainous industry . With vast amounts of personal information float around on theInternet , people are constantly at hazard for identity larceny and the ripple effect of stolen money . For example , in 2008 , the FBI reported $ 264.6 million drop off due to Internet role player [ source : Internet Crime Complaint Center ] . The Union governing has even more at stake than depository financial institution account numbers and birthing dates , though . In accession to the fitting of the cyberczar , the Department of Defense contrive to establish a U.S. Cyber Command Center to battle the tide of online scourge against its networks and classified government data .
The late series of cyber - attacks on July 4 , 2009 , highlighted why we need on-line safeguards . That weekend , government and public WWW web site in the United States and South Korea were assaulted withdenial - of - service attacks(DoS ) , which are essentially computer virus plan that flood internet site with traffic and temporarily invalid them . North Korea , which is n’t even known for having high - tech hacking capabilities , was suspect as the culprit [ root : Olsen ] . While the North Korea allegement has n’t been confirm , the hackers targeted at least nine U.S. sites , including the White House , Treasury Department and National Security Agency ( which is , incidentally , where the future U.S. Cyber Command Center is slat to be stationed ) [ source : Olsen ] . In South Korea , the DoS attack clog up more than 20 sites .
Harassing a fistful of Web website is one affair , but does one cyber-terrorist have the technological wherewithal to add down an total nation ’s web ? In a word : yes .
Estonia’s Hack Attack
Cyber - Armageddon has yet to commence , but hacker are engage small skirmishes – like what took station on July 4 , 2009 , against the United States and South Korea – and their accomplishment only continue to mature . Some of the most talentedhackersthese days live in Russia and former Soviet states [ source : Poulsen ] . That criminal tech tidbit is interesting , render the political post surrounding the practical crash of Estonia ’s nationwide internet in 2007 .
In March 2009 , a 22 - year - old Russian named Konstantin Goloskokov allow in to come up a group of pro - Kremlin friends to launch a series ofcyber - attacksagainst Estonian Web web site two year prior . riot founder out in Estonia in the spring of 2007 after government workers relocated a commemorative World War II statue of a Soviet soldier . Russian loyalists lease offense to the statue incident , which they perceived as a unmediated snub to the former Soviet Union ’s contributions to the war [ source : Lowe ] . As the scrap in street calm down , a second wave of aggression crop up in internet . agree to Goloskokov , he and a group of Quaker maneuver tremendous stream of information to Estonian government , bank and media internet sites , effectively cripple the nation’sInternetaccess off and on from April 26 to May 18 , 2007 .
The Estonian practical invasion consisted ofdistributed denial - of - service attacks(DDoS ) . With DDoS attack , hacker expend other people ’s computers , sometimes halfway across the Earth , to wreak virtual havoc . To launch DDoS flack , hackers first access other citizenry ’s computing machine throughzombie applications , malicious software that override security measures or creates an entryway point . Once hackers gain control over so - calledzombie computers , they can web them together to form cyber - US Army , orbotnets . The Estonian attack swear on vast botnets to place the ordinate crash - inducing datum to the Web servers .
Just how much equipment casualty did that small group of hacker carry out ? According to a New York Times article reporting on the effect , the hackers rained down a data shipment equivalent to download the entire Windows XP operating system every six seconds for 10 minute [ generator : Landler and Markoff ] . Hannabank , Estonia ’s large bank and one of the prime targets of the attack , suffer around $ 1 million over the course of instruction of the attacks , and Parliament members could n’t access e - mail for four days [ beginning : Landler and Markoff ] .
Goloskokov , the cyber - plan of attack mastermind , claim the siege was a form of civil noncompliance , rather than criminal conduct . Whatever the intent , the incident establish the terrible power that a distant group of hackers can manage . specially considering that Estonia is one of the most wired nations on the globe , the implications for what could happen to large and arguably less sophisticated networks in , say , the United States seem rather heavy . In 2000 , the Estonian government adopted Internet entree as a basic human right wing . But as cyberpunk hone their skills , the Baltic country may have to fight to defend it .
