Defending the US from hackers

Written by: MacKenzie Moore, Bradleigh Brown, Mariam Gendy, Maya White, and Jonathan Henriquez Sandoval
Photography by: ixbay

By: MacKenzie Moore, Bradleigh Brown, Mariam Gendy, Maya White, and Jonathan Henriquez Sandoval

In this generation, most of the school work that would have been done on paper worksheets or turned in by hand to teachers in a classroom is now done online. Most college students use Canvas to do homework, classwork, take surveys, and do quizzes/tests. College students also do other things online such as registering for classes and filling out financial aid for their school. Since college students are always on their computers and always using their emails to contact their professors and school, they need to always keep in mind that they could be targeted by hackers too. I believe that sometimes students forget that their college email and overall school network is not 100% protected. Hacker’s sometimes use social engineering tactics like phishing through emails to attack students. A way they do this is by using a non-reply email address pretending to be related to financial aid about things such as incomplete applications to get sensitive information out of students. Financial aid applications usually contain sensitive and personal information such as your and your parent’s tax information, social security numbers, and home addresses. Without caution, students can be victims of getting their information stolen through ways such as this. 

Many students who choose to pursue a career in cyber, cybersecurity, criminal justice, IT, law, etc. are studying this to join an organization. Meaning a government organization, agency, or legal firm that deals with intelligence, national security, and/or are looking for a career within the professional & legal or governmental realm of things. There are many different U.S. government organizations that people can join or get recruited by. Some of these organizations scout people from universities and there have been many instances where hackers have hacked into government organizations and gotten scouted that way. The purpose of understanding some of these organizations and what they do and how what they do has an impact on cybersecurity is something very interesting and also something that we all should know. This is because we all have some connection to the internet, cyberspace, and technology in general. All government agencies that have to do with national security, international security, etc. whether that be the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, or agencies like the CIA or the FBI. Each of these organizations and groups has cybersecurity plans and so as technology continues to grow and become more and more commonplace within our day-to-day, even more so than it is now, security and cyber are interconnected. A lot of students that are pursuing something in the social sciences are also pursuing something in the legal or technological field because the law has permanence within the U.S. and technology is here to stay. 

The importance of students understanding the impact of technology, specifically the way AI is becoming popular, is also how it will impact them in the future. AI has increased its use in the past decades and has now become a software that many individuals now use daily, whether it’s finding information in seconds to having it explain step-by-step processes of things for you to understand it thoroughly. One thing that is certain about AI is that we have not fully gotten to the point where it can be in a way autonomous which will change the way we live our day-to-day lives. This statement is true because technology is advancing so fast to the point where we will be relying on robots to do a large amount of jobs and AI progressing to become in a way autonomous to the point where it does tasks on command rather than through algorithms which may benefit many companies in the future in the field of technology as it is helping in CS already. Cybersecurity has been something that we are all part of even in the tiniest amount, from login into a website with credentials, to shopping online we all use the network and operating systems that require cybersecurity, and with the help of AI, these processes would run smoother and faster than how it currently performs. The risks that also come with AI are that if in the wrong hands, it can cause major structural damage to networks whether domestic or foreign due to the sophistication of programs it is capable of running. (Johnny S.)

In a time such as ours activism is a major part of our society as a whole. A lot of people go to protests or demonstrations to show their support for a certain cause. However, certain individuals would prefer to protest differently. A way that would be considered more silent. When activists use technology to further their social or political cause it is known as Hacktivism. You may have heard of one or two of these types of groups such as Anonymous or Lazarus. This type of Activism is still illegal though. For example, one of Anonymous’s infamous hacks was against a very controversial church. It was known as Project Chanology and it attacked the church of Scientology which at the time had tried to suppress an interview from one of their members. Anonymous felt that this violated free speech which is one of their biggest motivators. I think we can all agree that one of the biggest issues of our time is related to speech and just how free it is. 

            Infrastructure is a system of small, individual systems that make our country run.  If our infrastructure is weakened or hacked, our whole nation could come crashing down.  Our infrastructure is run on one large network.  So, therefore, if our network becomes hacked, our infrastructure becomes hacked.  This spells doom for America.  One particular hack that would be detrimental to our country would be a Fire Sale.  This is a three-stage attack that is coordinated between many different hackers to target a country’s transportation, telecommunications, financial, and utility infrastructure systems.  In a successful Fire Sale, the hackers would have complete and total control over these systems, allowing them to do as they wish, create complete chaos, and a leaderless environment.  You may ask the question, why do people do this?  The answer is this: they may be financially unstable, which allows them to feel superior to others, bored with everyday life, and don’t know what to do with their high intelligence.  Or it could be as simple as them having a God-complex and this gives them a semblance of control.  Whatever the reason, their main goal is to cause chaos and that’s exactly what would happen if our infrastructure was compromised.