DailyPost 2693
VOLT TYPHOON
You don’t know what you don’t know and being confident of handling it is the epitome of being foolhardy. The confidence generated even by people who broadly know this animal borders on bravado; they are the run off the mill cyber security professionals. The issue we are talking about is the murkier side of the cyber world, known to the world as cyber security, which encompasses security at a level of nitty gritty never human in human history. Nonetheless, the alacrity is missing and life is shown to as usual. By doing this we are playing into the hacker’s hands and that is the reason why they are taking the centre stage.
The latest news to hit the world is that the Chinese hackers infiltrated in the US critical and lurked in the shadows for 5 years. Given the incidents in the recent past, this news is not a complete bolt from the blue. It was in the offing. But remaining undetected for five years raises immense concerns on the cyber security establishments being run by the governments. They had infiltrated in US infra; railways and water systems ages ago, so to say. As expected, this is a team of state sponsored hackers from China, this came to be known by a recent statement from the US national security agency, US cyber watch dog, CISA has revealed.
The group in question is named Volt Typhoon. This group has been operating for up to five years. They infiltrated networks across various sectors including aviation, rail, mass transit, highway, maritime, water and sewage. The expanse of this attack can put any establishment to shame. The statement was signed by US NSA, CISA, FBI, TSA, along with the cyber security agencies from UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, clearly highlights the seriousness of the threat posed by Volt Typhoon.
Based on the information available so far, it does not seem to be a typical espionage-focused cyberattack. “Volt Typhoon’s activities appear to be geared towards sabotage, raising concerns among officials.” The threat level is heightened for sure. There are high level discussions being held between White House and private technology industry leaders, including telecommunications and cloud computing companies. Given the precarious situation, assistance is being sought from them in tracking and mitigating the hackers’ actions. It is not that the monster is limited to the US, it is tough times ahead for the whole world, if we don’t resolve to fight it out with expertise. It is easier said than done.
CYBER ESPIONAGE TO CYBER SABOTAGE SEEMS TO THE TRAJECTORY BEING TAKEN BY THE HACKERS.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.