Internet and information technology are no longer modes of communication and business, but have become viable cyber weapons. Right from hacking of personal computers and hijacking online identity to full-fledged malware attacks, cyber attacks have taken a form of a war, which may even cause severe effects on the world economy.
Not only armed warfare, nations are now using highly sophisticated cyber weaponry to cripple the critical infrastructure (like power plants, nuclear plants, etc.) of a hostile country in order to smother their internal economy. In fact, Cyber Warfare has become a key military strategy for not only combating with enemies, but also to safeguard a nation’s own security.
While nations have invariably shown strong solidity and unity to curb cyber crimes by enacting stringent policies; the latest international trends express grave news and questions the credibility of cyber laws. A typical example here is the cyber attack conducted on communist nations like North Korea and Russia to gain access to their nuclear plants and defense factories.
Listed below are some of the international trends in cyberspace that poses a serious threat to world economy and technology.
Platform Switch: Cyber crime has now gone off to a new level of sophistication, as it switch-gears from normal PC/ windows to mobile devices, tablets and VoIP. Vastly popular virus programs like Trojan and Zeus have already been adopted for mobile devices and will pose a severe threat for business organizations and national security systems. Smishing on mobile phone is suspected to rise as the program will now break through the two-level security authentication used in the banking sector.
Social Engineering: Cyber criminals will use this feature as a tool to victimize money mules in order to launder their money around the globe. The technology will use social networking sites, which will push the users to download malwares, which will help hackers to gain access to their system.
Hyper-Targetting: There has been quite a buzz about 'Hyper-Targetting' that is known to disrupt the security systems of industrial plants. The coming years will see grievous effects of 'Hyper-Targetting', like those of the 'Stuxnet' worm that was identified in a German plant and has become a global panic in the business arena.
Malware Mutation: Cyber security specialists state that there are as many as 80 billion components of malware in cyberspace. It has been researched that malwares are on a regular process of mutation, which makes it difficult for security researchers to keep up with the pace. Industry sources say malwares affect 30% of computer systems in US, and this is likely to increase in the coming years if cyber security measures are not beefed up.
Enterprise Mobility: The recent technology boom has also pushed business organizations to move one step ahead as far as sharing information is concerned. Most companies are aiming to offer multiple information sharing mediums to their employees to boost efficiency. Unfortunately, only few of these organizations have necessary security counterintelligence to combat virus or malware attacks.
The recent trends clearly indicate that cyber crime reaches its highest level of destruction on an international strata as nations have started to use Internet as a tool for warfare, rather than knowledge transfer. This era of technology and Internet requires stringent security and intelligence to battle cyber crimes and warfare, rather than mass investments on weaponry systems. Urgent counterintelligence procedures are the need of the hour before adversities slip out of our hands.
Not only armed warfare, nations are now using highly sophisticated cyber weaponry to cripple the critical infrastructure (like power plants, nuclear plants, etc.) of a hostile country in order to smother their internal economy. In fact, Cyber Warfare has become a key military strategy for not only combating with enemies, but also to safeguard a nation’s own security.
While nations have invariably shown strong solidity and unity to curb cyber crimes by enacting stringent policies; the latest international trends express grave news and questions the credibility of cyber laws. A typical example here is the cyber attack conducted on communist nations like North Korea and Russia to gain access to their nuclear plants and defense factories.
Listed below are some of the international trends in cyberspace that poses a serious threat to world economy and technology.
Platform Switch: Cyber crime has now gone off to a new level of sophistication, as it switch-gears from normal PC/ windows to mobile devices, tablets and VoIP. Vastly popular virus programs like Trojan and Zeus have already been adopted for mobile devices and will pose a severe threat for business organizations and national security systems. Smishing on mobile phone is suspected to rise as the program will now break through the two-level security authentication used in the banking sector.
Social Engineering: Cyber criminals will use this feature as a tool to victimize money mules in order to launder their money around the globe. The technology will use social networking sites, which will push the users to download malwares, which will help hackers to gain access to their system.
Hyper-Targetting: There has been quite a buzz about 'Hyper-Targetting' that is known to disrupt the security systems of industrial plants. The coming years will see grievous effects of 'Hyper-Targetting', like those of the 'Stuxnet' worm that was identified in a German plant and has become a global panic in the business arena.
Malware Mutation: Cyber security specialists state that there are as many as 80 billion components of malware in cyberspace. It has been researched that malwares are on a regular process of mutation, which makes it difficult for security researchers to keep up with the pace. Industry sources say malwares affect 30% of computer systems in US, and this is likely to increase in the coming years if cyber security measures are not beefed up.
Enterprise Mobility: The recent technology boom has also pushed business organizations to move one step ahead as far as sharing information is concerned. Most companies are aiming to offer multiple information sharing mediums to their employees to boost efficiency. Unfortunately, only few of these organizations have necessary security counterintelligence to combat virus or malware attacks.
The recent trends clearly indicate that cyber crime reaches its highest level of destruction on an international strata as nations have started to use Internet as a tool for warfare, rather than knowledge transfer. This era of technology and Internet requires stringent security and intelligence to battle cyber crimes and warfare, rather than mass investments on weaponry systems. Urgent counterintelligence procedures are the need of the hour before adversities slip out of our hands.
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