[governance] US Banks under cyber attack

[Devon Blake]

I am trying to see these activities and the responses to this thread in the
lnterests of the IG community. As posited by some of these responses, these
attack could be:

   1.  A means of buying time while resources are being marshalled for the
   real and more devastating attack.
   2. Nuisance attacks aimed at undercutting real value such as labour
   time, and or equipment time that could have been used for increased
   productivity.
   3. Depending on who is suspected of initiating the threat, It could be a
   red herring strategy designed to give the Western powers an excuse to go
   after radical and internet containment regimes.

I cannot fully agree that banks are fullly secure, as i do not believe the
losses and costs of internet attacks on banks are not necessarily readily
available to the non bank community. Banks are always vulnerable as their
main currency is trust, when that is eroded either through their own
actions or the actions of others the result could be catastrophic. It is
not even necessary to have successful attacks, as long as information on
the attacks can be published in such a way that it undermines public trust.

With Social Network Sales projected to grow in 2012 from $US3B to $US14B by
2015, They will become fair targets for interception and redirection
strategies which again could affect consumer confidence in social networks
as a sales tool.

I guess this is just the tip of of the ice berg, civil society who will
most likely be the main victims in these scenarios, need to develop the
necessary awareness of those basic internet habits that are detrimental to
their online security, and those habits they need to build so that they may
increase that same security.



On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:33 PM, Chaitanya Dhareshwar <chaitanyabd at gmail.com
> wrote:

> The war's been on for years now. (with an unseen/unrecognizable enemy)
>
> Actually with today's fast moving world, time is a more critical
> commodity. I'll take spam as an example.
>
> If it's possible to have people spend 10 minutes more checking spam, or
> make people check their email less often due to the vast amount of spam in
> it, the attack has claimed a victim.
>
> The implications are pretty significant - it may just be 10 minutes per
> person - but weekly it adds up to almost an hour of active email
> checking/deleting - plus the risk of a worm/virus coming in with the
> message. For an organization with 1000 people it's 1000 man hours per week
> wasted - which costs a fortune. In defence projects and suchlike inspite of
> safety measures if one worm gets into the facility it can waste even 10
> times more time than that (because nobody wants a worm crawling around on
> their network).
>
> Yes money is important - but with other victims easier to take like time,
> social media account information (because most are fairly careful with
> their bank details now-a-days) - it's still fairly easy to make a strike.
>
> Just IMHO, for the consumer/customer I'd rank time > virus-threat >
> password theft, and given 90% people already check the security certificate
> (or look for the 'green bar' on FF) I'd say financial theft is slightly
> less likely, and most consumers would not care too much as long as there's
> no theft. Most think SSL is bulletproof!! They trust the banks (and their
> security) implicitly.
>
> For financials it's usually to get an alternative if the online banking
> service is offline - like phonebanking or sms banking - or pop down to an
> ATM and check the cash...  Not as much of a threat as long as there's no
> data theft (which, TBH, the banks are doing a good job of keeping safe).
>
> -C
>
> On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 12:19 AM, Devon Blake <devonrb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/u-banks-under-cyber-attack-iran-money-safe-151123675.html
>> Is this a response to Stuxnet? or is this the beginning of a cyberwar?
>>
>> --
>> Devon Blake
>> Special Projects Director
>> Earthwise Solutions Limited
>> 29 Dominica Drive
>> Kgn 5
>> ,Phone: Office 876-968-4534, Mobile, 876-483-2632
>>
>> To be kind, To be helpful, To network
>> *Earthwise ... For Life!*
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>>      governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>> To be removed from the list, visit:
>>      http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>>
>> For all other list information and functions, see:
>>      http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
>> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>>      http://www.igcaucus.org/
>>
>> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
>>
>>
>


-- 
Devon Blake
Special Projects Director
Earthwise Solutions Limited
29 Dominica Drive
Kgn 5
,Phone: Office 876-968-4534, Mobile, 876-483-2632

To be kind, To be helpful, To network
*Earthwise ... For Life!*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20121020/4d959105/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t