Cyber security
Cyber security threats have been on the rise probably due to increased knowledge in technology. This is both in an individual capacity or cartels who collude to achieve their personal goals by hacking or destroying cyber or other computer programmed systems. Cyber-attacks have also been linked to lack of awareness by the individuals, both the administrators and the users (“Targeted Cyber-attacks”, 2014). To enlighten the public on how the attacks take place in most occasions, experts have resulted in shooting movies or films which they believe will be effective in creating awareness to the public. One such film that both the public and cyber experts believe have played an important role in enlightening the public is the ‘blackhat’ movie. This particular movie shows how cyber-attacks are planned and executed and the effects that is likely to cause. Moreover, the movie creates awareness that cyber-attacks are carried out by individuals with high knowledge in computer operations especially in programming language. The success of the cyber-attackers are attributed to the loopholes in the cyber systems where the attackers need only to access one of the system settings then use it to recode and change the systems operations in the cyber. Due to their vast knowledge in computer operations, all these activities are done in a manner that cyber administrators cannot detect that their systems are being attacked. It usually happens without their knowledge and they come to realize their systems have been tampered with on later stages when the attackers have successfully completed their mission.
The producers of the balckhat movie tend to show that cyber-attacks can be executed from a central point, but have severe attacks on more than one targeted location. This is clearly shown when a coolant plant in China overheats and explodes and on the same time the Mercantile trade exchange is hacked and causes a rise in soy futures. This is a hidden theme that shows the areas that are mostly targeted by the attackers who mostly target military systems and bank or financial institutions. Nearly, 70% of the cyber-attacks are related to these two sectors. Joint operations in ending cyber-attacks have been said to be one of the most appropriate measures if the war on the attacks is to be won. Blackhat movie tends to show this when the FBI and Chinese cooperate and carry a joint operation to find the hackers a mission that is delicate to avoid a counter-attack by the hackers who may bring more devastating loss. The code used by hackers is the first step that helps in reverting or repairing the damaged systems when they are hacked (Wolden, Valverde, & Talla, 2015). Leehom Wang one of the characters in the movie is instrumental in ending the attack here since he is the person who wrote one of the codes suspected to be used in carrying out this particular cyber-attack. Reverting or controlling the attacks is not always an easy task as the movie depicts since they desperately seek the services of Hathaway who was imprisoned for cyber-attack related crimes. The theme of the movie is more so seen to suggest that mitigation processes are better than repairing or recovering the already lost data. This is because the preventive measures are both efficient and cheap as compared to the recovery methods. The mitigation process is achievable if the personnel entrusted with running and managing a given system upholds ethics and integrity in their operations. The movie shows that hacking most of the time is done if the system administrators are part of the conspiracy with outside parties where they share crucial information which is used against the organization for malicious purposes. This can be controlled by among other things having a good working relationship with the employees and also consistently monitoring the status of the system. Partnership with the government of the day and other stakeholders who are interested in protecting the systems has also been quoted as one of the best ways to reduce hacking and system infiltration. The movie shows that this helps in tracing the hackers’ base, with minimal effort and cost. The main mission here is first to retrieve or repair the already damaged systems and recover that which is lost, in this case the money. The next mission is to neutralize or contain the attackers, but as expected, it is not an easy task as the attackers prove to be hostile and ready to engage those pursuing them in a fight. However, at last the team is successful in showing the need to curb cyber related crime in joint operations owing to the fact that the attackers mostly operate as cartels. The movie’s overall position is that proper mitigation measures should be adopted while legal actions should be taken to apprehend those involved in cybercrime. Those who run the cyber are also encouraged to back-up their data to avoid scenarios where they lose all information in case their systems are hacked. This will be attained if experts are involved in cyber business since they are best placed to act swiftly in case of an error.
References
Targeted Cyber-attacks. (2014). Network Security, 2014(6), 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1353-4858(14)70057-1
Wolden, M., Valverde, R., & Talla, M. (2015). The effectiveness of COBIT 5 Information Security Framework for reducing Cyber Attacks on Supply Chain Management System. IFAC-Papersonline, 48(3), 1846-1852. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.355