Another day, another hack; we need a Sputnik moment
“We didn’t do this to attract federal agents, only test power.”
— New World Hackers
The latest cyber attack reads like a Hollywood screenplay: A shadowy collective of Russia- and China-based hackers overwhelm the server farms of a key internet firm by commandeering tens of millions of devices connected to the internet — closed-circuit video cameras, digital video recorders and even thermostats — with malware that sends three waves of junk data traffic. The attack affects Fortune 500 companies, including Twitter, Netflix, PayPal and Github.
Except this wasn’t the movies; this was real life on Friday. Two New World hackers, “Prophet” and “Zain,” say their actions were “good” because they highlight internet security problems, and another, “Ownz,” has said, “We will make one demand actually. Secure your website and get better servers, otherwise be attacked again.”
The attacks are not a new phenomenon and have increased in frequency and severity. A Government Accountability Office survey of 24 federal agencies found that between 2006 and 2015, the number of cyberattacks climbed 1,300 percent — from 5,500 to over 77,000 a year.
For every American who has fallen victim to a phishing scheme in their email, has had to replace credit and debit cards because of a database hack, has gotten a credit watch on their accounts or watched the steady release of WikiLeaks dumps, cyberwarfare is here and now.
And to date the hackers are winning.
On Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was monitoring the situation but he had no information on who might be behind the junk traffic disruption. That rings too true with GAO findings that “until the selected agencies address weaknesses in access and other controls, including fully implementing elements of their information security programs, the sensitive data maintained on selected systems will be at increased risk of unauthorized access, modification, and disclosure, and the systems at risk of disruption.”
It has become trite to call for a Sputnik moment, but in point of fact the United States truly needs one to secure its information — hackers have made this clear time and time again.