Cyberattacks are now a fact of life and one that all of us must address. If you look back at the last few weeks, you will see there are multiple instances where cyberattacks on critical infrastructure have been traced back and attributed to a specific entity. Here are a few of the public disclosures since the first of the year:
- Cyberattack on the Ukraine power grid, attributed to Russia.
- The cyberattack on Kyiv‘s Boryspil International Airport, blamed on Russia.
- Turkey attributes the cyberattack that targeted a hospital to Russia.
- U.S. will publically blame Iran for a cyberattack on a dam in New York.
- Cyberattack targeting the U.S. State Department email, reportedly done by Russia hackers.
- Hundreds of cyberattacks targeting Australian government networks came from China, followed by Russia and Indonesia.
It is unclear just how solid the evidence behind the attribution of these attacks actually is. One would have to believe that it must be fairly solid given the wide-spread media coverage. So the big question is: – nNow what? Currently, an attack takes place, it is detected and mitigated to the best extent possible, investigated and source(s) identified and then comes to …. a blank space.!One private-sector executive said if it happens to his organization, he wants “reimbursement for the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars of costs associated with these attacks.”
Cyberattacks against organizations — private, government or military — are increasing in frequency and sophistication. And the organizations attacked bear the costs associated. It would be impossible to dispute the frequency of cyberattacks that target military, government and private-sector systems and they are increasing in frequency and sophistications. Year after year the costs incurred due to these attacks are increaseing. A private-sector executive recently said he’d like “reimbursement for the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars of costs associated with these attacks” if it happens to his organization.
Right now there is very little to deter those behind cyberattacks. There has to be some real cost to carrying out these attacks. There also must be real costs to governments that tolerate individuals and groups within their borders launching these cyberattacks.
While these cyberattacks are serious, they do not come close to what rises to the level of war. A few individuals have come to believe that a few of these cyberattacks have actually resulted in death(s). That has not been publically confirmed by any reliable government source or agency based on my analysis. When reliable confirmation of death(s) being attributed to a cyberattack takes place, things will change significantly, and not for the better! We should prepare now for this, as it is likely come sooner rather than later.
