The first ransomware attack, in 1988, was a crude effort involving virus-laden floppy disks. But in the decades since, the sophistication of malware, and the money reaped by criminals, has skyrocketed.
Co-ordinated cyberattacks can create massive disruptions to infrastructure and supply chains. New treaties are needed to prevent cyberwarfare, but it’s challenging to predict technological advances.
If an organization that has your data gets hacked, your vulnerability depends on the kind of attack and the kind of data. Here’s how you can assess your risk and what to do to protect yourself.
Matthew Sussex, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
This could have been a feisty exchange between two adversaries. But the summit was a calm affair, with each side hoping their hostile relationship could be ratcheted down a notch or two.
The amount of online data and transactions are growing exponentially. Related is the increasing possibility of cyberattacks — one way to address these is by regulating parts of the internet.
When announcing financial penalties on Russia earlier this year, Biden hinted at the prospect of ‘further’ sanctions. An energy scholar explains what Biden may have meant.
Priyanka Ranade, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Anupam Joshi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Tim Finin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Bots flooding social media with fake news about politics is bad enough. Muddying the waters in such fields as cybersecurity and health care could put lives at risk.
The FBI and Treasury Department frown on the idea of paying off cyber attackers. But there is sufficient ethical and legal gray areas to make it a real moral quandary for business leaders.
Most people think of trust as active – you place your trust in someone or you don’t. But weak cybersecurity, like leaving your front door unlocked, is a matter of trust, too.
Fragmented authority for national cyber defense and the vulnerabilities of private companies that control software and infrastructure stack the deck against US cybersecurity.
The courts have given the government the authority to hack into private computers unannounced. The action addresses a clear threat, but it also sets an unsettling precedent.
More than 500 million people’s details were compromised. The records include various combinations of name, email, gender, date of birth, location, relationship status and employer.