Good Example Of Research Paper On Recent Cyber Threat And Its Implication For The US National Security

The US government spends $10 billion every year in attempts to keep the sensitive information safe from the clutches of cyber criminals. In the face of cyber crimes that at a rate higher than ever before, a recent report released by the Associated Press declared that majority of the breaches to the federal data were orchestrated by the government employees themselves. But why should we be concerned about these federal crimes when it is hardly our responsibility? Here’s the reason; The US intelligence officials state that cyber crimes surpass even terrorism as a threat to the US national security.
But which is the entity that wants to target us? According to the FBI Chairman Carper and a ranking member Coburn, many state-sponsored hackers’, global hackers and terrorists strive hard to take hold of the information that is of value to us so that they could intimidate our economy and infrastructure and thereby make us weaker. This is the reason why threat to this information is an issue that is taken very seriously in the United States, and all of the security and intelligence officials take note of each and every anomaly and irregularity to counter the movements of those who intend to harm us.
What follows after this is an example of a cyber crime the dominated all news about cyber crimes and was probably amongst the largest attack of the year. On November 4, 2014, computer systems at the media company ‘Sony’ were hacked, and responsibility was claimed by a group who called themselves guardians of peace. On December 2nd, Sony acknowledged the attack and declared that it had cost them a massive amount of confidential information after which the FBI launched a formal investigation. The personal information concerned a sum total of 47,000 individuals many of which were also celebrities. In the initial stages of the investigation, figures were pointed at North Korea, a claim that was denied by North Korea itself not long after. The White House referred to the cyber crime as a serious National Security matter, and President Obama said that Sony made a mistake cancelling the release of ‘The Interview’ in the aftermath of the incident.
The Interview, the comedy movie premier that Sony was forced to cancel after the attack was about the CIA planning with the journalists to kill the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On December 19, 2014 stated that it had collected enough evidence to confirm the North Korean government the entity that was responsible for the crime. Hackers leaked personal information of the company’s executive level employees including their credit card numbers, salary figures and passwords and also unveiled footage of films that were yet to be released.
All of the intelligence and security agencies are working harder now more than ever to keep the victims of cyber crimes to a minimum. Amongst the others, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working with both public and private entities to keep a lid on the issue and to make surfing and carrying out business on the internet safer and secure for the American people. DHS is also collaborating with the U.S. Secret Services and U.S. Immigration, and Customs Enforcement to create subdivisions that deal with combating cyber crimes.
These entities in addition to dealing with cyber threats at the national level are also training individuals, who are mostly students to watch out for the criminals that lie in wait and give advice on how we all could protect ourselves. Most of the seminars and awareness sessions stress the importance of exercising care when giving out personal information to strangers on the web. These organizations mostly focus on the education and training of the individuals who use the internet on a regular basis.
In addition to these government operatives and officials, a handful of individuals is also working towards protecting the individuals from the ramifications of cyber crimes. One of these individuals comprises of Cyber Chatter. This is an of group of experts who provide services that center the internet inclusive of social media strategies, social media monitoring as well as public relations and brand management. Even though protecting from cyber crimes may not be the specialty of this particular entity, it does, however, fall within the scope of their job description.

References

Linkedin. (n.d.). Cyber Chatter. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/company/cyber-chatter
Micro, T. (2014, December 12). Cyber attacks considered top national security threat. Retrieved from Trend Micro: http://blog.trendmicro.com/cyber-attacks-considered-top-national-security-threat/
Robert Anderson, J. (2014, September 10). Testimony. Retrieved from The Federal Bureau of Investigation: http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/cyber-security-terrorism-and-beyond-addressing-evolving-threats-to-the-homeland
Sputnik news. (2014, December 19). FBI Names North Korea as Sony Cyberattack Culprit. Retrieved from http://sputniknews.com/us/20141219/1016049041.html
The Economic Times. (2014, December 20). Timeline of cyber attack against Sony. Retrieved from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/timeline-of-cyber-attack-against-sony/articleshow/45583033.cms