2011 vulnerable to Cyber attacks: Symantec

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 05 April 2011, 23:13 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Helsinki: Ever since the dawn of internet and mobile industry raised up into human civilization cyber crimes has been the worst enemy of all times. As per the survey conducted by Symantec, year 2011 is going to witness many more cyber attacks in coming days. In 2010 web based attacks roused to 93 percent and the mobile industry recorded around 42 percent rises in cyber attacks. In mobile operating system the attacks rose from 115 in 2009 to 163 in 2010. The super weapon worm called stuxnet affected around 30.000 industrial Iranian computers in 2010. It was an attack on Iran nuclear site. The Iranian government termed this attack as an electronic war. Iran was the most badly hit country from this worm. However much of the damage was avoided by the Iran government. Stuxnet is a virus that can attack a widely based industrial system and starts transmitting data about industrial production lines. Following the attack of stuxnet U.S. issued alerts for four different software products used to control hardware appliances at such industrial facilities. Today the world is based more on Corporate IT networks where global internet is the backbone of sales, outsourcing and operations. The vulnerability of these networks in malicious cyber crimes is the biggest threat to industry people in recent times. Social networkings sites like Facebook , twitter are most readily available target hence are the most vulnerable to such attacks. Since its popularity in recent times is incredible they have been the easiest target. It is the most successful medium for the attackers as consumers never avoid opening a file sent by legitimate sender. Apart from the social networking sites mobile platform are looked as the second easy option for cyber attack. Google operating system Android is more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Hence smart phone hacking is a new but productive area for the hackers. Several instances of malware were also found in iphones. The government of India is also taking all possible steps to prevent any such attack from stuxnet on the power transmission lines and air traffic control systems. A meeting was held on 23rd march in Prime Ministers office with top representatives from secretaries of home, finance, telecom, IT and defense in order to lay out a blueprint to prevent such attacks. In that meeting, decision was taken to tighten the security around Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) and Power Grid. Security reviews will be conducted in all airports by a two tier team comprising officials from National Technical Research Organization and Air Traffic Control systems (ATC). National Technical Research Organization would soon submit the plan for tightening the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)-based systems of ATC and Power Grid. Cyber crimes and criminals can be prevented only through a joint effort of the government and the corporate. Air traffic control, banking, telephones, electric power, health care, welfare and education are largely dependent of information technology and telecommunications for its operation. Almost everything in today's life is affected by technology and hence probable to cyber attacks. This explosive internet development requires explosive protection from future attacks. This new phase of cyber warfare requires invention of new and innovative ways to deal with such attacks.