Cyber Spying Is On The Rise

Cyber spying is growing. Are you prepared? It was revealed recently that a cyber attack, believed to originate in China, hit Canadian government computers. Now officials are trying to figure out what do about it all. Good luck. The feds aren’t unique, and most governments and large organizations are constantly being probed. Often, only after the fact, when they start analyzing usage, do they realize it.

By Tony Wanless / February 18, 2011

Cyber spying is growing. Are you prepared?

It was revealed recently that a cyber attack, believed to originate in China, hit Canadian government computers. Now officials are trying to figure out what do about it all.

Good luck. The feds aren’t unique, and most governments and large organizations are constantly being probed. Often, only after the fact, when they start analyzing usage, do they realize it.

Ottawa has been hit by hackers before, it seems. Also, the U.S. government, which has created a computer security division run by a “cyber czar,” experiences some kind of attack almost daily. In creating the high-level division, President Barack Obama called protecting the nation’s computer systems vital to its security in the modern world.

Welcome to the age of cyber spying

Modern communications technology has made it easy for hackers and other cyber attackers to probe any high-profile organization for data and other information that might come in useful for various activities, legal or illegal.

Many of these attacks come out of Russia or China, although it’s not certain if governments are involved. Islamic groups are also active on the cyber front: I know of at least one large organization locally that has fended off several attacks from Middle Eastern Islamic groups trying to get their messages out.

So why should we care?

Because these attacks aren’t aimed only at causing disruption. More often, they involve industrial espionage.

So if you’re involved in certain industries – technology, for example, or in the commodity sector – you could be next. WikiLeaks has shown that no one is immune from electronic information theft.

There are many people out there who would gladly steal your information and sell it to a competitor or someone else who would like to have access to it.

If you have information you deem sensitive and you would rather keep quiet, perhaps you had better install some serious security around it.

In the age of the Internet, cyber spying and information theft will be a booming business.