I have waited for a few weeks to respond to this thread, specifically to see what people would reflect in their ideas. I want to state that while I am no authority on the issue of cyber attacks, the chronic number of attacks launched by Chinese entities is particularly worrisome to both government and civilian businesses in the United States. In one particular entity known as APT-1, 141 companies have been singled out by this one group and this is only one group. Additionally, the Chinese government has spent millions in developing its ability to not only engage in cyberwarfare, but insulate itself from foreign attack, which should worry not only government officials, but the common American. We are not only talking about cyber attacks on utilities and financial institutions, but in just about anything we commonly do on the World Wide Web. You must remember, even today, the gas station fuel pumps run on a micro-circuitry and with the right virus, simple every day things we take for granted to include even the street lights could be affected under an attack. A scary thought, if your the one behind the wheel and at a busy cross-roads, when some jerk decides to attack the system and have every light turn green. How do we protect ourselves, I am completely unsure, I've asked this of my 16 year old computer geek and even he has no good responses. You simply can't harden everything as he pointed out and if you did, then computer networks would still be open to attack, once you open the keys to exchange information with another net. As he said, it would be like going back to the telegraph, where the line and the two receivers would be just it...nothing else.
As for software open to attacks...well for sure, if it were the utilities, for a period of time, we would experience discomfort. For me personally, that would mean we would lean heavily on our solar systems as our main power source and at times, when an extra energy source was needed go to the diesel and gas generators. None of these are open to cyberattacks since they are closed systems. I have a wind kit and battery at my storage location, so I suppose considering the local government would have their hands full, they wouldn't ticket me for breaking the local laws.
Areas also to be concerned with that might fall under attack, satellites that provide telecommunication and GPS. With the GPS down, people will have to go back to old fashion map reading. Radios, Satellite TV and national broadcasting may be affected. So a good old fashion shortwave might be our only alternative for news.
I have enclosed a small paragraph that I wrote as part of my thesis regarding China's on-going dispute in the Western Pacific regarding the South China Sea and East China Sea (Japan). At the time of my writing, the number of cyber attacks in the last five years has almost tripled compared to the preceding 10 years prior to 2009...their has been a decrease, possibly because Chinese entities have proved their theory that the United States is extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks and as a result is marshaling its resources/preventing counter steps in the event that it must use them against us.
One area not discussed above is China’s investment into cyber attack technology. The Chinese government and the PLA have vehemently denied that they are linked to recent cyber-attacks against the U.S. and other nation’s computer networks. China, in the last ten years, has invested in high tech war capabilities. The foundation includes controlling an adversary’s flow of information and maintains dominance through comprehensive computer network exploitation (Krekel, 2009). According to Krekel (2009), China is using its maturing computer network exploitation capability to support a sophisticated campaign of intelligence gathering against U.S. government and industry in order to increase their ability to sustain operations. The PLA again has no transparent document that outlines their planning and execution, which leads western analysts to highlight past incidents that link China’s ability to conduct an undeclared war against US interests. Theorists believe China will use it against unclassified or unsecure networks to delay deployments and combat effectiveness of supported forces in the region. The PLA has adopted cyber-attack and defense protocols into their operational planning. From 2002-2009, a total of 30 documented cyber-attacks, noteworthy enough to be included in the report, highlight Chinese hacker’s ability to attack potentially damaging information networks (Krekel, 2009). Figure 15 reflects the number of malicious cyber activities directed on U.S. Department of Defense Networks up to 2011 as reported to Congress. The U.S. government has been slow in developing systems to defeat attacks on their cyber systems and this lack luster ability may contribute to China’s ability to defeat U.S interests in the future.
Malicious Cyber Activities on U.S. Department of Defense Networks—Continued
Department of Defense Reported Incidents of Malicious Cyber Activity, 2001–2010, with Projection for 2011
FIGURE 12: Malicious Cyber Activities. Source: 2011 Report to Congress
of the U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION. * The figure for 2011 represents a projection based on incidents logged from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2011. The projection assumes a constant rate of malicious activity throughout the year.