Whether left or right, liberal or conservative, libertarian
or mainstream party hardliner, taxpayer or tax money recipient, I think most of
us as Americans can agree the one thing we expect from our government is to shield
us from attack.
I am confident when alien invaders strike from above or a
foreign army lands on the beach or zombies come streaming across the land, our
military will be ready and willing to fight to defend us. But, there is a
scary, new frontier that all the aircraft carriers, jet aircraft, smart weapons
and the most highly-trained and prepared military force in the world are all powerless
to stop without a serious shift in U.S. government policy: cyberspace.
I recently read an article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
on a small business that was forced to close its doors by a hacker, or a group
of hackers, or maybe even that group of folks in those guy-from-England masks
themselves. Sorry for the vague and wordy description, but I’m afraid to type
out their name in case they have their Google alerts on!
The business featured in the article developed a site designed
to allow people to post their opinions on political issues of the day,
essentially providing a forum for people to debate back and forth through
pre-recorded video. This was truly a small start-up, founded by college
students and funded with a mere $35,000. This site could have been the
next great thing, but once users posted videos commenting on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, hackers set out to destroy the site.
The attack began by redirecting the site’s main page to
another page, which featured a graphic of that famous hacking mask and some
green Matrix-style falling letters and numbers. Every time the site’s owners
had the page redirect fixed, it was hacked and redirected again. Each time a
hack was fixed, it was costing the site’s owners money because paid contractors
maintained the site. Though they eventually found some angel coders to fix the hacks
for free, the relentlessness of the attacks led the business owners to abandon
their site and try to operate their vision through a mobile app. Unfortunately,
though, the mobile app never caught on and hackers successfully silenced
another site that had great capital potential.
According to a study by the National Cyber Security
Alliance, these small business owners are not alone. One in five small
businesses becomes the victim of hacking and of those that do, 60 percent go
out of business within six months. But, according to a recent U.S. Chamber of
Commerce article, as cybercrime increases, our country still lacks policies to
defend America’s cyber networks and the companies that use them.
The biggest problem for businesses that get hacked is they
simply do not have the resources to fight back. They are completely on their
own, fighting the attack in a silo. There is no “911” to call, no federal
agency to ask for help when an attack occurs. The business can only hunker down
and rely on the limited personnel and funds they have to combat the relentless
attacks of people with a very unlimited resource – their own free time.
The only way we can fix this problem is to demand that our
government step in to defend these small businesses – to defend us as Americans
– just as they would if the hackers landed on the beach with a gunboat and an
army in tow.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
One of the first steps our country's leaders should take to strengthen our defenses, experts say, is to pass federal cybersecurity information sharing legislation, which would protect firms that share information about data breaches and other cybersecurity-related experiences with public officials and other companies. Without it, business leaders will remain understandably hesitant to share information about attacks for fear of litigation or other consequences.
This sounds like a really great idea to me. Fortunately, legislation that would accomplish this has already passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Let’s hope the people we put our faith in and send to Washington see fit to make every small business owner just as safe from cyberattacks as they are today from aliens, zombies and foreign armies.
One of the first steps our country's leaders should take to strengthen our defenses, experts say, is to pass federal cybersecurity information sharing legislation, which would protect firms that share information about data breaches and other cybersecurity-related experiences with public officials and other companies. Without it, business leaders will remain understandably hesitant to share information about attacks for fear of litigation or other consequences.
This sounds like a really great idea to me. Fortunately, legislation that would accomplish this has already passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Let’s hope the people we put our faith in and send to Washington see fit to make every small business owner just as safe from cyberattacks as they are today from aliens, zombies and foreign armies.
No comments:
Post a Comment