Why do we allow hackers to continue to threaten critical national infrastructures?

Financial losses due to cybercrime now exceed the total dollar amount of illegal drug trafficking globally: more than a trillion dollars. By 2025, the total loss is projected to exceed $ 6 trillion. That is incredible!

The entire critical infrastructure of each nation state is clearly at risk.

The significant threats facing a modern country, such as the United States, can be viewed from the perspective of its sixteen vital and interconnected economic and industrial sectors. Elements range from the energy and finance sectors to national defense and healthcare. The interdependencies are totally intertwined.

A former director of National Intelligence in the United States called cybercrime the top threat to national security.

Any nation whose political and business leaders do not respond aggressively to the threats that line their vital infrastructure is in deep trouble. To tell the truth, this author is not impressed with the lukewarm response of businesses, government officials, and everyday citizens to massive threats against civil society. Risks are practically ignored.

The author has presented at dozens of venues in the United States and the world on the dangers facing digital processing infrastructure. All countries that have established automated computer controls on their economy and lifestyle face similar threats from cybercriminals to rogue nation states who want to steal money or wage an unrestricted information war with the goal of world domination.

Our populations are largely unaware of the magnitude of the problem. Many of the same politicians and leaders who should provide strong leadership are ignoring the obvious signs and consequences.

The critical national infrastructures of every modern nation are interconnected to the point where the weakest link can be exploited to create the catastrophic destruction of an entire country. Yet we keep rushing headlong to become increasingly dependent on digital interfaces, sensors, and controls every day.

We are now open to what one author, Winn Schwartau, called a “digital Pearl Harbor.”

The combined package of information security threats and vulnerabilities is huge. The threats are asymmetric in nature. They can range from a single person buying a malicious software package on the Internet to a nation-state using an information warfare battalion to explore soft infrastructure targets to exploit.

Part of the author’s professional experience included working with the intelligence community to detect what are known as “over the horizon” threats. I can assure you that there are legions of threats that focus on the disruption and destruction of civilized society.

Adversaries are currently cataloging the vulnerabilities of interconnected information systems around the world. Law-abiding nations, as well as business and industry, lag significantly behind, largely due to complacency.

Is it really that bad?

Consider answering the following question if you are having difficulty understanding the scope of the information security threat: “How many critical national infrastructures are fully protected from the effects of a high-energy EMP * weapons attack on the digital powerhouses of the world? his country?” The answer is very little. Business and commerce, as well as civil authorities, can barely handle the effects of a snowstorm, much less survive widespread digital destruction.

An EMP attack targeting a nation’s digital infrastructure has the potential to literally destroy all unprotected computer circuits and render all devices inoperable, including computers, digital controls, and smartphones.

A modern nation-state faces horrible and unimaginable effects in the event of a successful attack on its nation’s critical national infrastructure. An intelligence officer once commented on reality in simple terms. He said, “Whoever has the wagon wins!” Too many of us don’t even recognize the problem.

I challenge you to learn all you can about strengthening your information security readiness.

* An EMP is a weapon designed to generate a pulse of high energy gamma rays that can be destructive or damaging to delicate electronic circuits and equipment over a wide area.

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