CYBER TERRORISM/ INFORMATION WARFARE

Acts that are considered Cyber terrorism and/or information warfare can be separated into four distinct categories; infrastructure attacks, information attacks, technological facilitation, and promotion. To find a proper solution, it is necessary to recognize the organizations that may be vulnerable to each kind of attack and understand what the offenders might hope to gain by infiltrating their systems.

Infrastructure attacks: One of the organizations that are susceptible to this kind of attack is Dominion Virginia Power. Dominion Virginia Power empowered with approximately 18000 employees and serve more than 2.5 million houses with electricity and natural gas. Controlling the remote sensors and maintaining the security is the primary goal of the organization. Proper background check for the insiders along with controlling the remote access is mandatory for the company. The perpetrators might hope to intrude the network of the companies, dismantle the controlled flow of the energy and perhaps damage the electricity lines that could impact millions of people.

Information attacks: Organizations that are susceptible to information attacks are the healthcare industry. There are several kinds of Protected Healthcare Information and Personally Identifiable Information that comes in and out of the health insurance company. Any manipulation of the data content or misuse of the personal information may result in major cases of identity theft, healthcare fraud and severe regulatory issues of the entire health care industry.

Technological facilitation: Companies that are susceptible to technological facilitation are the social media companies such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Since the social media has played a great role in information relay within seconds, the perpetrators can misuse the platform to communicate the plan of attacks.

Promotion: Social media companies are susceptible to promotion along with the technological facilitation. Since, the creation of the social media pages such as Facebook pages are free, perpetrators can create the pages and use that for recruiting, solicitation and fundraising.

References

McLain, J. (2011, April 07). Photo Credit: Cyber Terrorism. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/jessicafay2010/cyber-terrorism-power-point

WebRing Inc. (2014, n.d n.d). The World of Information Warfare. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from WebRing Inc: http://www.webring.org/hub?ring=infowar;id=18;prvw