Chapter 2: Anatomy of the Problem Recent terrorist attacks and the raise in cyber attacks have raised concern about the need to protect the nation’s cyber infrastructure The big and most recent ones like:

Code Red

Manila-based I Love You

Mafia Boy - DDoS

Melissa

Daily alerts from the tech people Almost every day at work you are reminded by the people in the tech support office of a virus on the loose.

Will there ever be an end to these? Cyberspace infrastructure and communication protocols are inherently weak T he average user in cyberspace has very limited knowledge of the computer network infrastructure, its weaknesses and gapping loopholes. Society, as a whole, is increasingly becoming irreversibly dependent on an infrastructure and technology that it least understands.

There are no long-term, let alone immediate plans and mechanism in place or planned to educate the public. There is a high degree of compliancy in a society that still accords a "Wiz Kid" status to cyberspace vandals The only known remedy mechanisms and solutions to the problem are patching loopholes after an attack has occurred. The price of this escalating problem is yet to be known. Reporting is voluntary, haphazard, and quite often at will. The nation is yet to understand the seriousness of cyber vandalism.

What are the causes? Vendetta/Revenge Demonstrations at World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., Prague, Hungry, and Geneo Italy – against globalization. Joke/Hoax/Prank The Hacker's Ethics All information should be free Terrorism Political and Military Espionage Business ( Competition) Espionage Hate (national origin, gender, and race) Personal gain/Fame/Fun/Notoriety Ignorance

Challenges in Tracking Cyber Criminals Nearly in all countries there is no required reporting mechanism in government agencies, even the private sector, to detect intrusions and report such intrusions In the private sector, there is very little interest in reporting of any system related intrusions. This is a result of the fear of marketplace forces that would expose management’s weaknesses to the shareholder community and competitors.

There is no adequate enforcement of existing reporting mechanisms The insider effect, it is reported in some studies that most e-attacks are generated and started by inside employees. This makes the job of detection and reporting very murky. It is like having an arsonist working in the fire department Many nations have no required and trained security agencies to fight e-attacks.

Social and Ethical Consequences

Psychological effects – these include hate and joke especially on an individual. – may lead to individual reclusion, –increasing isolation, and such trends may lead to dangerous and costly repercussions on the individual, corporations and society as a whole. Moral decay – There is a moral imperative in all our actions. When human actions, whether bad or good, become so frequent, they create a level of familiarity that leads to acceptance as “normal”. This type of acceptance of actions formerly viewed as immoral and bad by society lead to moral decay.

Loss of privacy – After an attack, there is usually an over reaction and a resurgence in the need for quick solutions to the problem that seems to have hit home. Many businesses are responding with patches, filters, ID tools, and a whole list of “solutions”. profile scanners and straight scanners like Echlon. Echlon is a high-tech U.S. government spying software housed in England. It is capable of scanning millions of s given specific keywords. Tracking technology to lead to virus writers. Trust – Along with privacy lost, is trust lost. Individuals once attacked, lose trust in a person, group, company or anything else believed to be the source of the attack or believed to be unable to stop the attack.