Cyberspace and Your Vulnerabilities
Few people’s lives – let alone businesses – are untouched today by the Internet and social networking sites. And yet few understand the dangers that lurk in these major dimensions of the new information age. Over 80 per cent of America’s largest advertisers are now using Facebook to promote their wares, which implies that social networking is now going mainstream – and not just in the United States. If you’re running a business and you’re unsure of the implications of this for your company, you should consider bringing in a team of experts in computer forensics that can audit your activities and keep an eye on your hot spots.
Don’t wait for the first signs to emerge that you’ve already been taken to the cleaners.
Now a Georgian blogger has claimed in an interview with The Guardian that he was the victim of a cyber attack engineered by the Kremlin. That mightn’t surprise many people, until you realise that the assault affected three worldwide services – Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal – and hundreds of millions of global users. It was the same sort of cyber attack that disabled South Korean and US government websites in July. The Georgian believes that the Kremlin was out to silence his criticism of Russia’s actions in the disputed border region of South Ossetia. He points out that an attack on such a scale could only have been organised by the Russian government. No one else has such huge resources – and the motivation.
He’s probably right. Facebook’s chief security officer has confirmed that the massive disruption was aimed at the Georgian: “It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard.”
The Financial Times on August 10 highlighted how Facebook is trying to build a platform where consumers and marketers can interact in innovative ways. It does not charge companies to have a fan page or an application. Nor does it plan to take a cut of the increased e-commerce taking place on its applications. Others argue that it is the effectiveness of these free services that is prompting the big brands to advertise. In the past year, more large advertisers have also started campaigning on MySpace.
This is new territory for many, and it is natural to focus on benefits to be gained rather than on threats inherent in the new medium.
And if you think Russia is the only power with the resources to engage in this sort of activity, consider China. Michelle Van Cleave, who was US counter-intelligence chief under President George W. Bush, wrote in the daily broadsheet newspaper, The Washington Times on August 6, that Canadian researchers recently reported that China had infiltrated computer systems in 103 countries. These ranged from embassies to factories.
Van Cleave quoted Secretary of State Henry Stimson’s famous line that ‘gentlemen do not read each other’s mail’. Stimsom went on to dismantle the US government’s only code-breaking capability – and a successful one – a decade before the Second World War. “Today,” she says, “in the era of the Internet, gentlemen know that other gentlemen are reading their mail, messing with their mail, putting viruses in their mail, and pretty much having their way with their mail.” She highlights how China’s sweeping electronic spy network acquires vast quantities of data through precision strikes, and leaves behind malware capable of positive control over a computer’s audio recording functions – a sort of stay-behind eyes and ears in your office.
Van Cleave’s point is that the US’s adversaries understand the advantages of linking cyber-exploits to clandestine human and technical intelligence operations as part of a strategic plan of attack.
There’s food for thought in that. If you have any doubts about how safe your business is, call in computer forensics professionals now. A rapid response team that uses a state-of-the-art technical computer laboratory and sophisticated forensic tools of analysis can give you an accurate and speedy assessment of where you stand. Rest assured, it won’t be a waste of time and money. It pays to be ahead of the game.
