“We are in a cyber war in this country, and most Americans don’t know it. And we are not necessarily winning. We have got huge challenges when it comes to cybersecurity.” These were the words of Representative Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017. But what is cyber warfare, exactly?
Back in 2010 Richard A. Clarke, a U.S. government security expert, defined it in his book as being “actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption”. The controversy around the term has stuck until this very day, since many consider describing hacking attacks as a ‘war’ is too much.
Nonetheless, the truth is that more and more cases of cyber espionage and sabotage are happening regularly. Luckily there are some measures that every ordinary citizen can take against it.
The world changed after the Snowden scandal in 2013, when the methods used by the NSA to spy on Americans and foreigners alike were revealed to the world. This included high profile targets such as Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, which immediately lead to the European country doubling investment in its cyber defense. But more important than that is how the world now understands the real problems behind cyber warfare: it’s invisible and happening right in front our eyes. President Trump signed orders regarding the topic in 2017 to address the nation’s “obsolete state”, and countries like China have also highlighted the importance of having a regulated cyber space.
Cyber attacks are not something new and have happened in the past already, with both offensive and defensive motivations behind them. One of the most famous was perpetrated by the UK’s MI6, where an Al Qaeda website had its instructions for creating bombs replaced with cupcake recipes. While many may consider this particular case to be amusing it still shows how serious this situation is.
The U.S. and Israel’s approach to the Iran nuclear program was much more serious, though the modus operandi was essentially the same. Even though they weren’t officially declared as the perpetrators, it is believed that the two nations deployed what is said to be the most advanced piece of malware ever, a massive virus that infected multiple industrial sites of the country.
But there are also other motivations behind attacks on another country’s digital infrastructure. For instance, after reporting on the Chinese repression on Tibet back in 2008, the CNN was attacked by nationalist Chinese hackers. Also, following an announcement addressing the oppression by the Al-Saud regime, a virus infected thousands of Saudi Arabian government computers back in 2012, creating chaos among a state-owned national oil company and preventing trucks from being loaded with gas.
Many of us have already been a victim of this cyber warfare, either directly or indirectly, and those who are lucky enough to have never been affected will likely end up being at some point in the future. That’s why it’s crucial to take some measures to protect yourself, such as using a VPN to conceal your online traffic and to remain anonymous from intrusive ISPs and other network snoopers while still enjoying unrestricted access to the world’s content. However, VPNs are not antivirus programs, so also having one of these is mandatory for keeping computers healthyand free of problematic software.
Enabling two-factor authentication, creating strong and unbreakable passwords and using password management tools can also be real lifesavers when it comes to keeping your email, bank accounts, social media profiles or any other password sensitive services secure. And speaking of social media, it is these accounts that are one of the easiest places to have your identity stolen, and potentially seeing it later being used for all sorts of wrongdoings. LifeLock is one of the many identity theft protection services that can be used for this purpose.
Finally, many times being up-to-date with the latest news about cyber crime is enough to avoid putting yourself into any troublesome situations, for instance knowing the current trends for password phishing will help you avoid falling prey to malware carried via email or other services. Likewise, it is recommended that you install all the latest updates to every device or program you use as they appear, particularly if these updates improve security.
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