DailyPost 612
INTERNET ROUTER CRISIS
When it comes to cyber breaches & hacks the story always gets bigger and our response always not upto the mark; peacetime or while handling a crisis. We have heard of advisories at the in war torn & crisis situations and during health hazards. FBI suggests to turn off internet routers as the malware hitting the routers worldwide creates havoc. This advisory would have gone out after a lot of background investigation and after reaching a near finality on the nature of its impact.
With code resemblances to earlier malware developed by Russia, the FBI is of the opinion that size & scope of the infrastructure impacted by VPNFilter malware is significant. It suggests in the advisory that owners of small offices & home offices to reboot their internet routers. This malware is being used to steal information and / or to block internet services. Though as per present research and efforts made, nobody has any inkling of the fact as to how it all started.
VPNFilter has the capability of rendering small office & home office routers inoperable. The information passing through the router can also be collected. Unlike the earlier malware detection is turning out to be more difficult. The analysis of malware’s network activity is complicated by use of encryption & also mis-attributable networks. The attack has affected already devices of more than 50 countries.
Ukraine happens to be the most affected country. It has been the theatre for many such attacks in the recent past, mostly form Russian origin. The fallout it seems of their tussle over Crimea. Malware as a weapon of state policy is complicating the cyber security scenario globally. The hired non-state actors do it for the state. This is slowly becoming the standard combination. Cyber space for sure has become the most popular battlefield. Following the Cyber arena in its minutest detail and be battle ready is a necessity. A Cyber Command may be the need of the hour.
IN A DIGITAL WORLD, CYBER SPACE IS THE BATTLEFIELD.
Sanjay Sahay