With the aggressive onslaught of technology today, cyber experts like Arun Vishwanath of New York are predicting complete domination and war-like uses of the internet. Cyberwarfare has suddenly become a public phenomenon. There has been a significant paradigm shift in the use of the internet, from a tool of socialization and information to an instrument of war. Instances from all around the world are proof of this.
Multiple media outlets had reported that President Trump authorized the US Cyber Command to launch a cyber-strike on Iran. This was a deserved retaliation for Iranian hackers’ role in the 2016 incursion in New York and the massive ransomware attack of March 2018. This won’t be the first cyberattack between two nations, or even of America’s against a nation- like Russia, for their misinformation campaigns during the 2016 presidential election. But this particular attack by the US would herald a new age of internet warfare.
The US has more targets than most nations, and compared to adversaries like Iran, has more capability and ammunition to carry out those attacks. It has more computers, more infrastructure that is reliant on the internet, and more users going online consistently for various purposes. But this also magnifies users’ exposure and vulnerabilities. Social-engineering attacks like a phishing emails, social media, and messaging, targeting users are increasing in intensity, and there’s no effective defense against them. In addition, the attack tools developed by US intelligence agencies are vulnerable targets by nations lacking the resources to make their own. For instance, the Eternal Blue tool, by the National Security Agency, was stolen and leaked by a hacker group and was used by North Korean Hackers to create a massive ransomware attack that crippled millions of computers in a matter of hours. This essentially leads to riskier actions to keep dangerous tools hidden from being stolen; like keeping nuclear arsenal in unguarded delivery vans to escape detection by intelligence agencies.
Thus, before things get further out of hand, we must collectively agree that the internet cannot be used as a tool on the battlefield.
For more information, please click on https://www.arunvishwanath.us/2019/07/13/the-troubling-implications-of-weaponizing-the-internet/