Cyber-attack

Cyber-attack is any type of offensive maneuver employed by nation-states, individuals, groups, or organizations that targets computer information systems, infrastructures, computer networks, and/or personal computer devices by various means of malicious acts usually originating from an anonymous source that either steals, alters, or destroys a specified target by hacking into a susceptible system. These can be labeled as either a cyber campaign, cyberwarfare or cyberterrorism in different context. Cyber-attacks can range from installing spyware on a PC to attempts to destroy the infrastructure of entire nations. Cyber-attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous as the Stuxnet worm recently demonstrated.User behavior analytics and SIEM are used to prevent these attacks.

Cyberwarfare utilizes techniques of defending and attacking information and computer networks that inhabit cyberspace, often through a prolonged cyber campaign or series of related campaigns. It denies an opponent's ability to do the same, while employing technological instruments of war to attack an opponent's critical computer systems. Cyberterrorism, on the other hand, is "the use of computer network tools to shut down critical national infrastructures (such as energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population." That means the end result of both cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism is the same, to damage critical infrastructures and computer systems linked together within the confines of cyberspace.

Three factors contribute to why cyber-attacks are launched against a state or an individual: the fear factor, spectacular factor, and vulnerability factor.

The most common, fear factor, a cyberterrorist will create fear amongst individuals, groups, or societies. The bombing of a Bali nightclub in 2002 created fear amongst the foreign tourists who frequently visited the venue. Once the bomb went off and casualties ensued, the influx of tourists to Bali significantly reduced due to fear of death. Korstanje Maximiliano argues that cyber-terrorism is not very different than terrorism. Basically, cyber-attacks are aimed at instilling fear in order to impose demands or claims of any type. In view of that, this expert says that in those societies oriented to ratioanlization and plannification, the probabilities terrorism surfaces are higher than traditional past-oriented communities. What disturbs the social order is that citizens do not know when the next blow will take place, nor where.

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Wikipedia