Current Events: Flame Virus, Stuxnet, & Cyber War

Cybercrime Name: Course title: Professor: Institution: Date Due:  Introduction In the recent years, the rate of cyber crime, computer hacking as well as virus attacks has been consistently rising in global perspective. Persistent security breaches have ended up causing damages to many organizations (Ogut, 2006). Many of these Organizations have in turn resulted to use different security technologies such as intrusion detection system, firewalls, biometric, encryption, and other authentication system to deter these problems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze various articles concerning cyber espionage programs such as Stuxnet and Cyber War.  HYPERLINK "/sgp/crs/natsec/R41524.pdf" /sgp/crs/natsec/R41524.pdf The information on this web link is concerned on a report with regard to the novel kind of cyber attacks that were used to attack Iran. In this report, Stuxnet, which is a malicious program, was used to infect computers that had not been connected to the internet so as to interfere with the operations of the nuclear power factory in Iran. This software was capable of eliminating or undermining the software in which it operated. It was later discovered that the program had also spread to other parts of the world.  HYPERLINK "http://news.yahoo.com/proof-links-flame-stuxnet-super-cyber-weapons-researchers-150951902--abc-news-topstories.html" http://news.yahoo.com/proof-links-flame-stuxnet-super-cyber-weapons-researchers-150951902--abc-news-topstories.html This web link is about the discovery of Stuxnet as the key author of the Flame espionage program. Stuxnet is a powerful and offensive cyber weapon, which was developed and targeted towards Iran’s nuclear plant. According to the authors, the program is capable of watching almost all happenings in a virus infected computer. The researchers discovered this program back in 2010 in Iran and Middle East as spying in the two countries’ nuclear systems. Stuxnet was discovered after succeeding in damaging a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran. The New York Times reported in late 2010 that Stuxnet could have jointly been instigated by US and Israel in an effort to undermine the nuclear program in Iran (Ferran and Radia, 2010). /2013/02/25/world/asia/us-confronts-cyber-cold-war-with-china.html?ref=stuxnet&_r=0 In February 2013, President Barack Obama circulated on the state’s internet a list of confidential computer addresses that had been linked to a hacking group. This group had been responsible for stealing terabytes of data from various corporations in the US. These addresses which were traced as to originate from Shanghai, China left speculations that Chinese military may have been behind the attacks ( HYPERLINK "http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/david_e_sanger/index.html" \o "More Articles by DAVID E. SANGER" Sanger, 2013). This issue is an illustration of the worsening trend of cyber cold war between the two giant economies, a situation that has become more harmful and complex. The U.S is still figuring out on how to deal with this issue considering that the two countries are trading partners. The Danger of Cyber Crime Perpetrators in Cyber attacks programs seem to be reinvesting a significant amount of their money in establishing novel capabilities for circumventing the present day security technologies. It is true that even the main vendors or manufacturers of antivirus are unable to maintain the pace concerning the ever increasing and “wild” malware and computer viruses (DeZabala, 2012). Criminals have been utilizing the vulnerabilities and more so target the weak links in security models. Indications are showing ...