Every week I email our contributors reminding them to send their content suggestions for the PC Pitstop weekly newsletter. Typically I don’t read these until I begin drafting the newsletter either late Wednesday or Thursday morning. For some reason, I did it today. I almost wish I didn’t.
Stu Sjouwerman from KnowBe4, a cyber security education platform, sent me an article about how President Trump launched a cyber attack against Iran on June 20, 2019. I assume this was in retaliation for the Iranian government recently shooting down an unmanned drone in international waters. The attack targeted the Iranian missile control computers and was described as “crippling”.
Will They Retaliate?
Now, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning the public there may be an increase in Iranian hacking attempts. Although Iranian hackers are not as advanced as China or Russia, the threat is still incredibly scary. Why? Because our nation’s defenses are terrible.
This attack, as well as last week’s reports of inserting malicious code into the Russian power grid, prove the U.S. can be offensive. However, our government is opening a can of worms that it cannot contain.
Attacks against the U.S. will likely be successful. Attack vectors are expanding, and malware continues to advance, yet ineffective solutions continue to be the “security” used.
If the U.S. government continues executing cyber attacks against its enemies, it is imperative the government begins taking a proactive approach to cyber security. Detecting and responding is not a proper solution. Think about it. If the enemy can infiltrate our power grids, then what? Our nation sits without power, and we “hope” the response team is able to restore it? No. If the U.S. government is going to initiate this, they MUST have complete confidence that our nation is secure and impenetrable. Do they have this confidence? I sure hope so, although confidence will only get you so far.
Crunch Time
The U.S. is on a short timeline to enhance its cyber defenses. They need to secure all open remote access ports, ensure all programs and operating systems are updated and disable the ability for any unknown programs and/or files to execute. For our nation’s sake, I hope they get started soon.
