Cyber war between organizations and hackers is escalating
02 August 2011 16:45:14
According to a report by BusinessWeek, criminals trying to steal intellectual property or just vandalize an organization’s operations and infrastructure have been getting more destructive and more brazen. Nascent attacks against public sector agencies and private sector businesses have gotten more diverse and the losses incurred have grown heavier.
At one time, cyber attacks were limited to online offensives and cracking passwords and encryption software. Today, attackers have added newer and more physical approaches to their bag of tricks. In some cases, companies have actually been broken into and had hardware stolen just to get at the technology and or data it stores.
The report adds that corporate espionage may be escalating to the levels depicted in spy novels in some cases. The companies being attacked are some of the biggest in the world and the government agencies being targeted include the Pentagon, the IMF, and high-level agencies in other nations.
However, the policies and weapons being developed to defend these agencies and companies have been getting more powerful and more effective, the BusinessWeek report said.
According to a Washington Post report, the Pentagon has generated a cache of cyber-weapons that can destroy hostile technology. The Pentagon is also streamlining how the government defends against cyber attacks.
-McAfee Cloud Security
