DailyPost 231
IT WAS IN THE OFFING
The historic cyber attack of Friday is ominous of the fact that 3rd World War would be a cyber war. With the situation the way it stands today, next major cyber attack can result in complete mayhem all around, an impact not dissimilar to that of a major Tsunami, not knowing how to react & the consequent digital relief & rehabilitation, would have its own story. It was undeniably in the offing given the nature of hacks / beaches happening in the last couple of months & in the last year or two. The story had taken a decisive turn with the hack of Sony Productions & since then increased in its potency & coverage till the current day.
There has been milestones in a journey we have not been able to fathom out, leave aside stall. The watering hole attacks on Polish banks was a clear indicator of the things the future had in store. With 99+countries, 75,000 computers infected, ‘WannaCry’ will certainly make us cry. This is the final nail on the coffin may not be an understatement, if we don’t change, burial would be in the offing.
The lip service to using latest version of the operating system & effective patch management has brought the world to, where we are today, in a whirl pool with no way in sight. Windows XP version turned out to be the weakest link. Though end of life product, Microsoft had released the patches a few months back, the concerned business & service entities not bothering to update. Crazy are the state of art organizations which don’t have patch management in their DNA.
Encryption based ransomware, ransom demands the bitcoin way, quantum & diversity of targets, in a way crowdsourcing of ransom $300 a piece; the future would be but a fairy tale story. The Cyber honeymoon is over. Harsh reality of the cyber goons have to faced or live at their mercy. They have thrown the gauntlet, will the might of the states respond.
CYBER RESPONSE PROCRASTINATION OUGHT TO END AT ONCE, FOR MANKIND’s DIGNIFIED SURVIVAL.
Sanjay Sahay