Cyber Warfare and Its Impacts on Security and Payment Systems Report

This report explores the multifaceted challenges of cyber warfare, beginning with definitions of hacking and cyber warfare, and examining the devastating impact of cyber attacks on security and payment systems. It highlights the WannaCry attack as a significant example of the chaos that can be caused by cyber threats. The report discusses how cyber warfare has outstripped terrorism as a major concern for national security leaders, emphasizing its potential to cause power outages, cripple military operations, and disrupt daily life. The report also addresses the difficulties in finding political solutions to cyber warfare, given the complex political alignments of nations. The document concludes with a call to action to understand the risks and impacts of cyber warfare and its implications for security and payment systems.

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Security and Payment Systems
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Courses
Instructor
Date of Submission

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Hacking and Cyber Warfare
According to one BBC article published in 2017, it is as a result of a cyber attack that led
to a harmful programme attack computers in almost one hundred and fifty nations some of which
included the U.K, Russia, Spain, China, and the US. The WannaCry, as it is called, caused a lot
of chaos in several organizations. However, the same was limited or contained by one individual
known as Marcus. The individual was then dubbed as an "accidental hero." Such came to be after
he had his domain registered for the purpose of tracking the virus spread leading to ended up of
the spread.
Regarding definitions, hacking refers to the process whereby an individual forcefully
gains access to a computer system. The break in involves finding ways of undermining the
security of a system and then gaining access. The same can be equated to breaking into a house
that has been locked (Pizzi 2014). Since you don’t have the keys to the locks, you will try to use
alternative methods to gain access. Most hacking crimes are usually done against organizations
to gain access into the computer systems of the same organizations to cause havoc. On the
contrary, cyber warfare is all about battling through the use of computer programs. The battle
mainly involves computer and networks. The operations performed in such cases are always
defensive as well as offensive. On the same, the offenses are always related to cyber-attacking
threats, sabotage, and espionage. As much as the name war, in relation to cyber warfare is
controversial, countries have been involved in such processes for a long period of time (Pizzi
2014).
Cyber war becoming devastating

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The greatest threat facing most developed countries is the cyber warfare. It has currently
outstripped terrorism with regards to what global leaders of national security proclaim. There
have been several instances of looming fears between world leaders concerning cyber attacks.
Such cases have been attributed to the inspiration, therefore, to create movie plots on the same.
In the U.S, for instance, some of the identified cases of cyber attacks happen to have targeted
websites. However, such attacks are associated with devastating impacts. One of the impact is
power outages that would likely lead to chaos as well as distract the military that could then be
crippled in cases of terror attacks. To add on the same, cyber warfare has the potential of burring
a country with traditional terrorism. For instance, at one instance, Eugene Kaspersky, who is an
information security expert, announced that he had discovered the Flame virus. Such a virus
happened to be targeted for the Iranian computers (CBBC Newsround 2017).
Impacts of Cyber Warfare
As mentioned earlier, cyber warfare has the capacity to cause widespread power blackout
that in turn would cripple lots of activities in a country. Such can even cripple the interior
defense of a country making attack easy. High profile attacks on sites can also cripple daily lives
as well as the infrastructure of a particular of a nation. Without having the full improbability of
the impact of a cyber conflict, it is evident that such conflicts re devastating enough owing to the
nebulous threat as one of the impending attacks crafted in the form of a cyber warfare that would
strike America (The UN 2015). The launch of such attacks leads to deaths of several people as
well as damage of property (The UN 2015).
Is there a political solution to MAD 2.0?

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Most probably that would be the hardest task to do. Such is due to the fact that nations
are politically aligned differently. It would be very difficult to interfere with a country’s military
alignment; leave alone finding a solution to nuclear warfare.

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Reference
CBBC Newsround (2017). What is hacking? - CBBC Newsround. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available
at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/39896362 [Accessed 8 Sep. 2017].
Contingency Planning, (2017). Contingency Planning: Developing a Good 'Plan B'. [online]
Mindtools.com. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_51.htm
[Accessed 25 May 2017].
Drucker, P (2017). Managing for Business Effectiveness. [online] Harvard Business Review.
Available at: https://hbr.org/1963/05/managing-for-business-effectiveness [Accessed 25
May 2017].
Pizzi, M. (2014). Cyberwarfare greater threat to US than terrorism, say security experts. [online]
America.aljazeera.com. Available at:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/7/defense-leaders-
saycyberwarfaregreatestthreattous.html [Accessed 8 Sep. 2017].
The UN (2015). Potential Security Impacts of Cyberspace Misuse Considered in First
Committee, as Speakers Warn of Arms Race, Emergence of New Theatre of Warfare |
Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. [online] Un.org. Available at:
https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/gadis3537.doc.htm [Accessed 8 Sep. 2017].