Problem of Cyber Security and Terrorism

Cyber security and terrorism is a serious threat to today's global society. The different ways it has improved from being small attacks to large attacks. The ways it has affected the global society and places like the United Kingdom and the NHS. There are different ways you can go about trying to solve and prevent future attacks and what to do if you are part of a attack. Cyber security and terrorism has a long history behind it; especially when the tactics of the cyber terrorist have improved over the years so it requires a lot of time, patients, and effort to learn how to solve the cyber attacks.

The history of cyber security and terrorism started as early as the 1940’s. In 1945, Admiral Grace Hopper found a moth along the relays of a navy computer, so then she called it a bug and later on in her life she came up with the term “ debugging ”. In 1964, AT&T started to monitor toll calls to catch people known as phone freakers or “ phreakers ”.

Get quality help now
writer-marian
writer-marian
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Cyber Security

star star star star 4.8 (309)

“ Writer-marian did a very good job with my paper, she got straight to the point, she made it clear and organized ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

Phreakers normally are those who obtain free calls by the use of an electric tone generators known as “ blue boxes ”. The blue boxes were used to change auto tones in order to control long distance calls and made it easy for phreakers to use. Then in 1970, AT&T stopped monitoring phone calls, within a span of six years the company got over 200 convictions. In 1972, John Draper also known as “ Captain Crunch ” from the widely recognized cereal boxes.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

He discovered that the whistle from the boxes could be used to duplicate the 2600 hertz needed to unlock the AT&T network.

In the middle ages of cyber security when the discovery of viruses were discovered. In 1979 the first computer “ Worm ” was created at the Xerox’s Palo Alto research center. The programmers were trying to reprogram some computers so they would run faster and more efficiently. Later, hackers from around the world started to modify the programs to make them

into viruses. Eventually these hackers would use these viruses to alter or destroy data from computers. Then, in 1983, the University of Southern California a doctoral student named Fred Cohen, created the term “ computer virus ”. In 1986, the first PC virus or “ The Brain ” was created, but it was not a destructive virus. Those who created this virus included all contact information needed within it.

Later, the viruses used for cybersecurity were put to work when there was a worm that needed to be disabled. In 1988, a worm was uploaded to “ The Ancestor of the Internet ”. The worm that was uploaded had disabled about 6,000 computers by replicating itself and filling the their memory banks. The creator of the worm was a guy named Robert Morris, who was sentence to three years of probation and a $10,000 fine. In the same year there was another attack called the Solar Sunrise, and it was organized by two California teenagers. These two teenagers hacked there way into 500 government, military, and private systems. In 2000, hackers used computers from the University of Santa Barbara to crash big websites such as amazon, yahoo, ebay, and other big sites.

Cyber security is a very complicated subject containing many thing anywhere from protecting yourself from an attack to responding to an attack. Cyber attacks have been proven to have a huge effect on individual, groups, organizations, etc. Cyber War or Cyber Warfare are other terms that relates to a Cyber Attack. These attacks are crimes that usually take place on a computer from a remote area. Also the individuals or groups behind these attacks often would get themselves into the system and place the virus. Cyber attacks are often used by other states or nations to attack another, and can also be used on individuals or groups.

Attackers usually attack government, military,and other larger organizations. The goal for most cyber attacks are to disrupt, destroy or even deny the use of the equipment and the networks they run on. The areas that the equipment and networks run on are connected to areas called cyberspace. The western states depend on cyberspace on a daily basis for modern security and for the necessary development of states yearly.

Cyber security can be split up into a few different levels depending on the type of attack. The first level is the physical layer which is made up of the hardware, cables, satellites, etc. The second level is the syntactic layer and it includes software that is used in the operation of the instruments used in the first layer. The third layer of cyber security is the semantic layer which is the human interactions with the software that runs the instruments in the first layer.

As well as the different levels there are different types of cyber security. The first type is international which is when individuals or groups that are inspired by foreign terrorists or organizations. The second type is domestic which is when the individuals or groups are inspired by primarily movements that espouse extremists ideologies of political, religious, social, racial, and environmental nature.

There have been many attacks that have been done throughout cyberspace. In 2017 there was a case study done on an attack called WannaCry. Before the attack took place many places like the United Kingdom were trying to improve their cyber security to try to prevent further attacks. The department of health had began to strengthen the cyber security for the National Health Service or the NHS. The NHS was digital broadcasting alerts about cyber security threats and they also provided a hotline to the public for any incidents. They were showing the best ways for carrying out onsite assignments to help prevent future attacks.

May 12, 2017 was when they attackers at WannaCry started the cyber attack. The attack affected over 200,000 computers in over 100 countries all around the world. The United Kingdom and the NHS were not a specific target but they got a majority of the attack. On May 12th at 4 P.M., was when the NHS in England declared The WannaCry attack as a Major priority and implemented its emergency that way arrangements could be made for hospitals to keep the patients to stay safe and maintain their health. Later that evening they activated the kill switch on everything that they possible could so that the WanaCry attack could not spread any farther or so it couldn’t lock any more devices.

After the WannaCry attack was finally over the impacts of the cyber attack started to finally set in on the countries and organizations that were part of the attack. The Cyber attack infected at least 80 out of 236 trusts across England. The trusts were infected by ransomware or they turned off the devises so that they couldn’t be infected by a precaution. Then the attack also infected 595 GP practices and it only attack networks running on Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The initial infection was likely a espoused vulnerable SMB Port rather than an email phishing but it was the main way that the attack was spread. The cyber attack encrypted all the files on the infected computers and then held them at randsome for around 300 dollars worth of bitcoins. There is not actually conformations that if anyone paid the ransom that they got everything back that was on the computers before the attack.

There were a lot of things that help the attacker behind WannaCry make it a successful attack. One of the main things as that most of the computers were using windows 8, windows 2003, and windows XP. The users using those windows networks made it easier for the attackers because most of the didn’t update to the newest security update. The last update was released in april 2014 and then the newest one was released in march 2017. There were also quite a few people using unlicensed windows software and the attack also showed vulnerabilities in windows OS or “Eternal Blue”.

There were also tons of attempts to try and find a cure for the attacks. A man named Marcus Hutchins was trying to figure out the approximate size of the attack. He then registered a domain for the DNS sinkhole and the CDNS gives false information about the domain for it slowed down the attack. Then a guy named Adrian Guinet created a solution for the attack called “ Wanna Key ”. After creating this solution he cautioned everyone who tried to use it, it wouldn’t work if the computer were to reboot or the malware virus had already overridden the description.

The attacks had a large impact on many things from individuals all the way up to the national levels. The WannaCry attack affected a number of businesses, institutions, and hospitals all around the world. The attack affected businesses like Nissan and Renault because they had to pause there activities because some of there computers were infected. The hospitals computers systems were affected by the attack in many ways from the computers to even the MRI scanners.

Throughout the attack and after it was over there were many organizations trying to help put a stop to it and most were non governmental organized groups. One of the NGOs were a group called the international information system security certification consortium, also known as ISC². ISC² is the leading non profit organizations in education and certifying information security professionals through these careers. They are recognized for their gold standard certifications and world class education programs. Their headquarters are located in the United States, they also have offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

There are many other NGOs that helped during the attack and another one of the leading NGOs is the sans institute. The sans institute is the most trusted and the largest source of information for security trainings and certification in the world. They develop, maintain, and make everything available to the world at no cost. They own and operate the internets storm center. The storm center is the largest collection of research documents about the various aspects of information about cyber security and it operates the early warning system. They help and train people about cyber security by teaching them in many different ways like like live trainings, virtual, classroom type learning, and online at their own pace or with a instructor. The courses are taught by people that have been in the field that they are teaching and are real life practitioners.

There are many ways to help protect yourself and others from cyber attacks. You have to keep all your software up to date and use strong passwords. Also watch for suspicious activities and try to always use encrypted or secure internet communications. Another thing you want to do is create backups for your software and protect your WiFi networks. Make sure to check your accounts regularly for suspicious changes and limit personal information online. There are also a few things that you can do after the cyber attack. You can file a report with your local police, The inspector general, FBI internet crime complaint center. You can also call the social security administration and you can find out more ways to protect yourself from future attacks. Then if it has anything to do with your identity report it to the federal trade commission and you can also report it to your local United States Secret Service Electronic Task Force or the Internet Crime Center.

Cyber security and terrorism is a serious threat to today's global society. The ways that it has went from small attacks like when AT&T was monitoring the phone calls to large attacks like when they used the computers to hack into amazon and other large name websites. The ways that the attacks have been used to hack into military bases and other government organizations. The WannaCry attack is one of the better ways to show how cyber attacks can work on a large scale attack.At Least there are tons of ways to protect yourself from cyber attacks and even ways to help prevent the attacks. These are just some of the ways that cyber security and terrorism have a long history behind and how much time, effort, and patients it takes to solve and prevent cyber attacks.

Works Cited

  • Brown, Regan. 'Computer security threats: a brief history.' Dell, 28 Aug. 2014, blog.dell.com/uploads/2014/08/history_2D00_of_2D00_computer_2D00_security_2D00_threats-1.jpg. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019. I found this website when i was looking for information about the history of cybersecurity. I used the information to help me with find out about the history if cyber security.
  • 'Cybersecurity.' Ready, www.ready.gov/cybersecurity. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019. I used this source for information on cyber security and it help me find more ways and infor
  • Cybersecurity ventures. cybersecurityventures.com/cybersecurity-associations/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2019. This source helped me find more information on cyber security
  • 'Terroism.' FBI, www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019. I used this source ton help me find more ways that cyber security and terroism and the different types of it and more.
  • 'WannaCry.' National Audit Office, Comptroller and Auditor General, 25 Apr. 2018, www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Investigation-WannaCry-cyber-attack-and-the-NHS.pdf. Accessed 21 Feb. 2019. I found this source when i was looking before more information on my case study and it help me get a lot of information on the WannaCry cyber
  • Willis, Aiden. 'WannaCry.' Rank secure, 20 May 2017, ranksecure.in/wannacry-ransomware-attack-case-study/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2019. This source helped me learn a lot more about my study I choose which is WannaCry
Updated: Apr 20, 2021
Cite this page

Problem of Cyber Security and Terrorism. (2021, Apr 20). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/problem-of-cyber-security-and-terrorism-essay

Problem of Cyber Security and Terrorism essay
Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment