Advisory from CISA on cyber security threats being sponsored by the People's Republic of China.
In previous post we discussed similar threats originating in North Korea.
Why is this significant?
During the Cold-War the construction of fallout shelters were popularized in the US both commercially and privately. School children were taught to duck and cover and corporations conducted safety training and disseminated information on nuclear attack. If you speak candidly with people who lived during those decades they will often recall being truly terrified of a Russian nuclear strike.
A nuclear attack from a known adversary of the United States is a threat that is fairly simple to conceptualize and process as a functional adult.
Cyber attack is NOT simple to conceptualize. It is not obvious what we are threatened by or how serious the threat is. Someone stealing your credit card or even your identity is troublesome, even devastating for a period of time, but it is not a nuclear attack. Even watching the news, and struggling to overcome massive data breaches like Change Healthcare (which had very serious real world consequences) over the past year does not create the same fear and anxiety as nuclear threat.
So why do we keep talking about it? Why do I keep posting about state sponsored hacking? Because, while it may not be conceptually obvious, cyber attacks against the western world are the new Nuclear Threat. Yes I mean that as dramatically as it sounds.
Imagine for a moment, waking up tomorrow morning and walking to the bathroom to brush your teeth or take a shower. You reach for the faucet, turn the handle, but nothing happens...odd, you think to yourself. You walk to another sink in the house and try the same thing, nothing, no water. Twinge of panic, "did I forget to pay the bill?" "No, its on autodraft, I will have to call the water company..." You go back to your room and grab your cell phone off of the dresser, as you tap the screen and unlock with your thumb you are met with 14 notifications, text messages, emails, news stories..your eyes fly over the preview of each and slowly your mind coalesces the information. US Water systems have been breached, cyber attacks have shut down all pump stations in large portions of the Midwest and east coast....you cant quite wrap your head around what that means. You click on a news article and begin speed reading. Authorities are struggling to respond as news of the breach has spread through the early hours of the morning, water companies are overwhelmed with phone calls. No one knows yet how the attack was carried out, there is no timeline on restoration of services, it is estimated that nearly 100 million Americans are without water service.
No timeline for restoration? "What does that mean?" you think to yourself.
Fast forward 11 days.
The death toll is enormous. Unimaginable, Water has been shipped in from every part of the country that was unaffected but it isn't coming fast enough. More information about what happened has now been made available but it doesn't matter, people have fled by the thousands to the West, highways are parking lots for hundreds of miles. Airlines are struggling with overload. Hotels are overwhelmed......
Sound like a movie?
It wont be.
Harden the Target, stay Vigilant!
Reflections on article tagged below:
