- Apr 26, 2011
- 2,779
With financial, health provider, and weapons systems all around the world being reliant on computers, how bad can it get? Think about the potential of thousands of computer wizard malware authors around the world. Is it really all that unlikely for them to conduct a coordinated attack while escalating their malicious actions in the mass pandemonium that ensues? Factor in the mass security inexperience of PC users (esp. Apple users) and inept gov't and corporate main frame network security.
It was not long ago that if you wanted to misuse a dangerous weapon, disrupt monetary systems, steal some money or health care records, you had to have physical access. Today, as we all know, you just have to weaken cyber security defenses and go in for the virtual kill. Either that, or go straight through the weak defenses that seem so plentiful. What if a coordinated attack manifested without intention therof? What if it started when some pranksters and the real cyber criminals, in mass, jumped on board gradually, and began to attack every major company, military and bank we can think of? What if they just kept pounding networks based on detrimental trends caused by their illegitimate criminal hacker counterparts? The best of the best of malware authors could instinctively know when panic ensues, and the ultimate chaos that results could facilitate an environment to pound on the weak sectors due to so much malware being distributed. More than that, backdoors that no one knew existed in their system could already have malicious packages in place that were ready to be activated to begin mass manipulation.
Is this a feasible scenario? How bad could it get?
ZOU
It was not long ago that if you wanted to misuse a dangerous weapon, disrupt monetary systems, steal some money or health care records, you had to have physical access. Today, as we all know, you just have to weaken cyber security defenses and go in for the virtual kill. Either that, or go straight through the weak defenses that seem so plentiful. What if a coordinated attack manifested without intention therof? What if it started when some pranksters and the real cyber criminals, in mass, jumped on board gradually, and began to attack every major company, military and bank we can think of? What if they just kept pounding networks based on detrimental trends caused by their illegitimate criminal hacker counterparts? The best of the best of malware authors could instinctively know when panic ensues, and the ultimate chaos that results could facilitate an environment to pound on the weak sectors due to so much malware being distributed. More than that, backdoors that no one knew existed in their system could already have malicious packages in place that were ready to be activated to begin mass manipulation.
Is this a feasible scenario? How bad could it get?
ZOU
