15/01/2015 - 2014 was a year full of hacker attacks: numerous companies such as Staples Inc., Neiman Marcus Inc., Home Depot Inc. and eBay Inc. have reported breaches of their systems and millions of their customers remained powerless in the face of data subtraction with regard to theirs credit cards and their personal data.
However, they have not suffered attacks from cyber criminals only commercial enterprises: also those of health care, such as Community Healt Systems, those financial, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., and entertainment, such as Sony Pictures were victims of cyber attacks. All these acts have shaken the confidence in the security offered in Internet.
The institutions have not been inert: a particularly aggressive intervention has seen the US Government accuses Chinese infiltration hackers in American companies. there they were then coordinated interventions at the international level that led to the capture of cyber criminals high profile, an example is the Onymous operation thanks to which they were discovered and numerous black market sites were interrupted, including Silk Road, which represented a fluent market anonymous known for the illegal drug trade. The attack on the Net is not a fad transient: if it is true that today information and personal data are the true wealth, we are witnessing a real looting of this "gold" in a world where more and more state and non-state actors use the Net and the new technology to hire, process and storing personal data that continue to be the object of cyber-attacks for data provisioning.
The discussion about security and data breach in computer science is increasingly impregnating and increases between the media and the public. Some of these discussions can be counterproductive but greater awareness and debate on cyber threats is definitely positive for safety. Greater attention will therefore be paid to the double use of technologies, as for the anonymous Tor network, with the relative benefits for privacy but problems in order to security.
The exponential increase in technological means for a close connection between the individual and the Web will contribute to the growth of the phenomenon of hacking you want by criminals want from consumers eager for a thorough analysis of the products.
Multi-factor authentication in this panorama represents a good starting point, in fact, in all likelihood, JPMorgan Chase & Co. could have avoided the infringement Apple Inc. learned the danger of cyber-violations too late: only after the abduction of a lot of celebrity data and photos - even in their intimate moments - decided to implement two factors authentication for iCloud.
Even an intervention by the institutions aimed at enforcing strict disclosure laws of data profit of violations could help. Today, however, there is no uniform picture in this within the scope of the United States, home of the largest data-breached companies, where every state has the its own rules for cybersecurity. Certainly certain data need greater attention and are already protected by specific regulations as it is for those concerning health they see about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, rules that anyway they must find constant updating that goes hand in hand with technological progress.
According to an analysis conducted by Verizon Communications Inc., third parties come to only knowledge of the 70 / 80% of the attacks, this suggests how the various states could strengthen the ability to monitor and form an awareness of risks in users. The memorization passwords in open files, for example, is a critical choice: if a hacker appropriates this file would have all the access keys in clear text. So you have to lend a big one too attention to online form filling. We need to put cybersecurity not like one functionality or as a convenience but as a real priority.
It is therefore very important to continue investing in safety innovations computer science in view of the fact that the Web is similar to a large safe in which they are stored the data of all of us, from the most known to the most sensitive. If any criminal, with good computer skills, being able to come into possession of valuable non-information he would perhaps be able to perform any act he wants and of any entity representing one concrete threat to collective security?
Intervening on a missile control system a distance would not it be possible to divert the missile?
It would perhaps not be possible to examine movements of people to plan terrorist actions?
Nicolò Giordana
(photo: US Navy)