The Internet's Ticking Time Bomb

Image Source: Recognize-Security.

Cybercrime, Cyberweapons, Cyberwar. BBC recently reported on the Counter Terror Expo in London (25-26 April), where Eugene Kaspersky warned attendees about false rumours started on Websites and social networks to manipulate the masses. (Really? Social networks are sources of disinformation?) He also talked about cyberwarfare and cybercrime:

The first threat is cyber warfare, he says - exactly what Stuxnet was about. And just last weekend, Iran took key oil facilities offline after their computer systems suffered a malware attack.

This could one day happen on a much bigger scale, warns Mr Kaspersky. For example, entire nations could be plunged into darkness if cyber-criminals decided to target power plants.

And there is nothing - nothing - anyone could do about it. ....

It is possible that a computer worm doesn't find its exact victim - and since many power plants are designed in a similar way [and often use the same systems], all of them could be attacked, around the world. ...

If it happens, we would be taken 200 years back, to the pre-electricity era. ...

Cyber crime has been a real concern of any computer user for years. Recently the threat has spread to smartphones.

No computer is safe from viruses. Every day, cyber criminals are infecting thousands of machines around the world.

Although many believe that Apple Macs are immune to infection, just this month more than 600,000 Apple computers were infected with the so-called Flashback Trojan.

And hacking mobile phones has become a real business in Russia, Asia, and other places where pre-paid phones are common.

"We estimate that criminals who target mobile phones earn from $1,000 to $5,000 per day per person," says Mr Kaspersky.

"They infect mobile phones with an SMS-Trojan virus that sends short texts to a number that is not a free number, until the victim's account is emptied.

"An average person won't have too much money on a phone account, but when hundreds of thousands of phones get infected, it is a lot of money.

"It's like this joke we have in Russia: 'Why are you robbing this granny, she's only got a rouble? And the thief answers: Well, 10 grannies - it's already 10 roubles'."

For my earlier posts on the Stuxnet virus, go here, here and here. For a short explanation on what it does, go here.