A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security

This study discusses about the ways in which pirates have attacked as well as continue to harm the cyber infrastructure of organizations and what measures we must take to be better prepared to tackle these threats. The history of cyberspace and cyber security is investigated and the most common types of cyber threats are identified. The study continues further to provide solutions to general users and board members of organizations to grow better equipped in tackling the threats and the role humans play in making cyber-attacks happen.

Running head: A DISCUSSION ON CYBER WARS AND SECURITY
A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
Introduction
This study discusses about the ways in which pirates have attacked as well as continue
to harm the cyber infrastructure of organizations and what measures we must take to be better
prepared to tackle these threats. To do this, the history of cyberspace and cyber security is
investigated and the most common types of cyber threats are identified. The study continues
further to provide solutions to general users and board members of organizations to grow
better equipped in tackling the threats and the role humans play in making cyber-attacks
happen.

2A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
Discussion
For most businesses, there exists a significant knowledge gap relating to cyber
security among the board level. This knowledge gap can be alleviated by Chief Information
Security Officers (CISOs) who can advise the board members on this subject in easily
understandable business friendly terms. The CISOs ensure this through four steps which are –
 Understanding of the board’s philosophy towards managing risks
 Building profiles of risks pertaining to the industry
 Establishing real metrics by measuring cyber risks
 Providing continuous improvements in demonstrating cyber resilience
Solutions like Cisco Security Advisory Services are delivered through the hands of
these CISOs and help in better understanding the risks faced by an organization (Allen et al.,
2015). The knowledge gained can aid in making more effective decisions in mitigating risks.
Cyberspace refers to visualization of the entire interconnection of digital networks
and technologies that enable operations to be performed digitally. This includes the World
Wide Web (www) as well as the different internet and intranet infrastructures used by
organizations and the military. Though cyberspace may resonate with Internet and appear
similar, they are quite different. Internet is the physical form of all digital networks while
cyberspace is the virtual world that came to being due to the existence of Internet.
With the advent of Internet, arose the risk of cyber threats that are meant for theft of
confidential information, damage to software, electronic data and hardware and even
disruption of services. This has led to creation of security infrastructure, techniques and
guidelines to prevent these risks from compromising computers and network systems. With
increasing reliance on computers, internet, wireless services and Bluetooth devices, the
importance on cyber security is rapidly growing. It all began when a computer hacker from

3A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
Germany, Markus Hess in 1986 successfully hacked Berkeley’s network gateway using
which he performed piggyback on Arpanet (Shoaib, 2017). The hacking operation affected
400 computers which included mainframes of the Pentagon with intention of selling military
secrets to the Russian KGB.
The most common types of cyber threats that plague systems today are:
 Watering hole websites – Watering hole attacks mainly targets organizations and the
industry. The attackers observe the set of websites that are most frequently used by
the company and fills them with up with malware.
 DDoS(Distributed Denial of Service) – These are denial of service attacks that are
meant to disrupt access to facilities like the internet, shared devices and can cripple
digital infrastructure of a company. Botnets are a collection of internet connected
devices that are used to spread this type of attacks.
 Advanced Persistent Threats – Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) refer to attack
campaigns where intruders try to establish an unauthorised long term presence on the
network (Ask et al., 2013). These attacks are very stealthy in nature.
 Phishing – It is a popular technique by which cyber criminals easily trick users into
clicking malicious links. Emails and messages are the common media through which
such attacks are carried out.
These cyber-attacks continue to raise the global threat level with Explosion of Data and
Internet of Things (IoT) as trends in technology playing a key role in spreading of infections
(Farooq et al., 2015). As a result it is utmost important for every node of the network to have
security applications like the one from Cisco installed that provide security features like
proactive threat detection and real time protection (Shin et al., 2013). It is also beneficial to
have the physical devices of the network secured through firewalls. Today the security

4A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
software packages have evolved a long way and secure systems from multiple angles.
However, despite how comprehensive the systems have grown, at the end of the day, it is the
user’s actions that actually makes a cyber-attack succeed.
This just means the general user must be more informed on cyber security risks, the
variety of threats posed by them and the methods they employ to make the attacks successful.
From this discussion it is evident that two major weak links exist in using of digital services
today. These are knowledge gap at the boardroom level of organizations and human error.
Hence the only way to address them is by increasing awareness (Kritzinger, 2013).
Conclusion
The study concludes by noting the lack of awareness on cyber security among the
general users as well as the boardroom of organizations as the key factor that make every
cyber-attack a success. It also suggests how growing number loopholes are being discovered
owing to data explosion and the wide interconnection among computing devices over the
web. The analysis also touches on how effective current security applications are in
preventing threats from today’s cyber security risks.

5A Discussion on Cyber Wars and Security
References
Allen, J. H., Crabb, G., Curtis, P. D., Fitzpatrick, B., Mehravari, N., & Tobar, D.
(2015). Structuring the chief information security officer organization (No.
CMU/SEI-2015-TN-007). CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA
PITTSBURGH United States.
Ask, M., Bondarenko, P., Rekdal, J. E., Nordbø, A., Bloemerus, P., & Piatkivskyi, D. (2013).
Advanced persistent threat (APT) beyond the hype. Project Report in IMT4582
Network Security at Gjøvik University College, Springer.
Farooq, M. U., Waseem, M., Khairi, A., & Mazhar, S. (2015). A critical analysis on the
security concerns of internet of things (IoT). International Journal of Computer
Applications, 111(7).
Kritzinger (2013). CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS AND EDUCATION RESEARCH.
[online] Eagle.unisa.ac.za. Available at:
http://eagle.unisa.ac.za/elmarie/images/Pdf/r1.pdf [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
Shin, S. W., Porras, P., Yegneswara, V., Fong, M., Gu, G., & Tyson, M. (2013, February).
Fresco: Modular composable security services for software-defined networks. In 20th
Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium. NDSS.
Shoaib, M. The Cyber-Nuclear Nexus and Threats to Strategic Stability.