Top Cybersecurity Threats & Solutions in 2021
In order to protect our nation, we must implement systems that will prevent cyber security threats and vulnerabilities from getting out into the cyber world and into the hands of those who would do us harm. Cybersecurity is not a new topic but understanding what it is and what its mission is does not go away with the passing of time. The cyberspace is expanding every day and so are the cyber security threats and vulnerabilities. Some are even coming directly from government agencies themselves! While this is troubling, it is not entirely surprising considering the fact that these are the same folks who claim to be protecting us, yet they are not keeping themselves safe.
Cybersecurity vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Google have been pushing their own proprietary platforms to be the fastest, most efficient systems out there, but in doing so they have ignored some important considerations. This has led to a big problem in the arena of cyber security, which is the lack of standardized solutions. No one can say for sure how cyber security threats and vulnerabilities will evolve over the next 10 years, but it is quite possible that by the time Microsoft delivers their own OS that they will not have the same level of cybersecurity as those companies that have already been using Windows for too long.
Another serious issue that has been overlooked is that of open source software and cyber malware. It has been well documented that these two issues pose the most significant cyber security threats to the United States and our worldwide computer network. If a nation state or a terrorist group were able to get their hands on some highly secret, cutting edge hacking software, they could literally shut down the computer network at will and wipe out any and all data. This would be the ultimate in cyber warfare and it might just be the factor that put the nation in the red line. The US State Department has been putting a lot of money and effort into developing cybersecurity solutions, but they have not been putting the effort into developing the most up-to-date cyber security tool that we need in order to protect ourselves and our systems from cyber attacks.
One of the problems with cyber security is that the definition of cyber security itself is somewhat vague. Just because something is considered cyber secure doesn’t mean that it actually is. Just because a cyber attack managed to get into your computer system and installed a keylogger or a malware program does not mean that you have been hacked. These are merely signs that someone was trying to gain access to your systems and personal information, but they could have just as easily gained access through any number of other means. There are a variety of ways that you can become a cyber security threat without actually going through cyber attacks. Here are some of the top cybersecurity threats & solutions in the future.
nation-state-sponsored hacking The U.S. and other developed nations have long discussed the possibility of a nation-state Sponsored Cyber Attack, where a nation state would engage in cyber attacks aimed at crippling or paralyzing an individual nation state or even their entire banking system. While this seems somewhat far fetched due to the fact that we don’t typically consider an international company or government to be a nation state, there have been several incidences in the past where these types of hacks have occurred. In fact, in the case of Iran and North Korea, the nation state sponsored hacking was used to get weapons into the country. While there is no proof to support this, it is a valid cybersecurity threat and needs to be discussed.
nation-state-sponsored hacking It has been argued by many cybersecurity experts that the Chinese government engages in cyber attacks on a daily basis in order to collect economic intelligence against their American counterparts. Some argue that this is done in order to gather sensitive data for use against them in political contexts. However, the Chinese government denied this and said that their aim is to defend China from external threats, which they consider to be a legitimate means of conducting business. While this is one of the top cybersecurity threats & solutions in 2021, it does not appear to be a trend that will go away any time soon.
nation-state sponsored cyber attacks The third most common cybersecurity threat is nation-state sponsored cyber attacks. Many say that the Stuxnet worm that was found in the Iranian military’s computer system is a good example of this. This worm was responsible for the crippling of the Siemens router which stopped thousands of computers around the world from accessing the Internet. While the Iranian government has denied any involvement, other nations are stepping forward with statements that this was a deliberate act carried out by Iranian hackers. While nation-state sponsored cyber attacks are on the rise, there are measures being taken by the international community to take down the infrastructure of nation-states so that the cyberspace is not polluted by this type of attack.
hybrid warfare We are also seeing hybrid warfare being used against us. We know that Russia has been accused of using hacking to steal information and weaken the security of Western financial systems. Now we also know that China has been accused of doing the same thing. While it is hard to prove that either country actually hacked into American computer systems, cyber criminals have become quite adept at using the Internet as a weapon to cause problems and spread viruses. It is clear that cybersecurity needs to be kept high on all agendas going forward.