(Post 1 need 500 word response with two cited references)
Likely the most recent cyber-attack to the US infrastructure was a ransomware attack in Baltimore, Maryland which occurred early May 2019. The hackers infiltrated the city services demanding a ransom in order to release those services (Hackett, 2019). This attack has caused many to be inconvenienced in the city. What is interesting is that the ransomware cyber-attack method has increased tremendously over the past year. According to the article by Fazzini (2019), almost all of the 50 states have been a victim of the ransomware attack. The ransomware software originated with the NSA and happened to be leaked to the public in 2017 (Hackett, 2019). Microsoft was contacted by the NSA to setup a patch but the article indicates that the patch has not been successful (Hackett, 2019). The citizens of Baltimore have been greatly inconvenienced by the system shut down, but ultimately no one’s life has been threatened. The public and private sectors involved in this attacks have been the NSA, the FBI, Microsoft and Google. The next cyber-attack occurred in the healthcare and public health sector of the US Critical Infrastructure. A collection agency that is used by the healthcare companies throughout the country, American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) experienced a ransomware cyber-attack in July 2018 which has potentially exposed financial data and personal information of just under 8 million customers (Landi, 2019). The report indicates that the AMCA works with many different types of third party entities. They hired a third party external forensics firm to investigate the breach and are working with third party vendors to reestablish their web-based payment system. According to the report by Miller, (2019), healthcare has seen an increase in cyber-attacks over the last year.
The healthcare industry must be more accountable for their cyber vulnerabilities. The government should provide more funding for cyber training and systems. At hospitals, for instance, almost all employees have a portable system they use to store data. Increasing the amount of technology throughout just one hospital, city, state or country, increases the likelihood of an attack if the systems are not being updated or handled properly.
Protecting an individual’s personal and health information is the responsibility of the healthcare system. If that information is compromised, many issues can arise. Not only the amount of money it takes to recover from a cyber-attack, but the trust of the citizens to use the system will diminish. The article by Parwani (2017) stated that a cyber-attack to the healthcare system cost just over 6 billion dollars each year. If this threat is increasing, the amount of money it takes to recover from will increase. Therefore, the federal government needs to invest in systems and programs that will provide more protection to this critical instructor for the US and the citizens of the nation.
Reference
Hackett, R. (2019, June 1). Baltimore’s Ransomware Mess Is Its Own Fault-Cyber Saturday. Retrieved June 4, 2019, from http://fortune.com/2019/06/01/baltimore-nsa-ransowmare-microsoft-windows-eternalblue/
Fazzini, K. (2019, May 28). Tax delays and canceled home sales: The costly ripple effects of today’s cyber-attacks. Retrieved June 4, 2019, from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/26/wolters-kluwer-baltimore-ransomware-attacks-have-big-ripple-effects.html
Landi, H. (2019, June 05). AMCA breach may have exposed data on 7.7M LabCorp patients. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/amca-breach-may-have-exposed-data-7-7m-labcorp-patients
Landi, H. (2019, June 03). Quest Diagnostics breach may have exposed data of 11.9M patients. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/quest-diagnostics-breach-may-have-exposed-data-11-9m-patients
Miller, M. (2019, June 06). High-profile data breaches underline cyber threats to health care industry. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/447381-high-profile-data-breaches-underline-cyber-threats-to-healthcare
Parwani, Anil. “Healthcare Industry Steps up Security as Cyber Attacks Increase.” Medical Laboratory Observer 49.11 (2017): 56–56. Web.
(Post 2 need 500 word response with two cited references)
The first attack that will be examined is a series of malware attacks, specifically in the Los Angeles area targeted towards newspaper companies throughout the city (Barboza, James, & Emily, 2018). The attack disrupted the distribution of newspapers across the region. The critical piece of infant structure that was targeted was the actual server farm that managed the distribution system. A key point with this attack was the fact that they did not appear to attack to steal information. But instead, the attack was made to take out the servers themselves and make them unusable in the future (Barboza, James, & Emily, 2018).
Additionally, the attack seems to have originated from outside the United States of America. Attacks on media outlets, both print and online seem to be a favorite tactic of nation-state actors such as China and Russia (Lee, 2015). Attacking media and information distribution agencies can have intended consequences of effecting a populations choices when it comes to political decisions that they make.
The next attack that was looked at was a malware attack on Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The attack targeted everything from the power grid to the shipping company Maersk, which is the largest container shipping company on planet earth (Odell, Jones, & Olearchyk, 2017). The Russian Federation has been to the source of many cyber attacks on Ukraine; this is a method of hybrid attack that is of grave threat for the Russians since most countries do not view a cyber attack as an event to go to war over. The Russians have become more emboldened ever since their successful annexation of Crimea; they have continued their efforts to try and bring the entirety of Ukraine back into the Russian Federation (Odell, Jones, & Olearchyk, 2017). Russian actors continue not only to attack Ukraine but during the last US election, they utilized thousands of fake Facebook accounts to spread false news as well as troll many independent news outlets to reduce their credibility in the eyes of the American people.
Foreign actors, primarily Russia and China, are using cyberspace as a new warfighting landscape to attack rivals such as the United States. China utilizes mostly cyber attacks to steal industrial secrets as well as defense technology from the United States. There has been much talk about some types of repercussion for China; there have been Tariffs levied against them, and the company Huawei has had their senior executives arrested and held in Canada with talks of banning them from operating in the United States. Huawei though, is making a come back they have just signed a deal to build Russia entire 5G network.
References
Barboza, T., James, M., & Emily, A. R. (2018, Dec 30). Malware attack disrupts delivery; A virus thought to originate outside the U.S. affects the times and Tribune papers. Los Angeles Times Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…
Lee, E. (2015). Homeland security and private sector business : corporations’ role in critical infrastructure protection (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
Odell, M., Jones, S., & Olearchyk, R. (2017). Cyber attack hunt focuses on initial ukraine infection. FT.Com, Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…