Preventing Cybercrime in the United States

Preventing Cybercrime in the United States1

Preventing Cybercrime in the United States

Following the Guidelines of the American Psychological Association of Style

Introduction to Cyberterrorism

The mission of the Department of Defense’s cyber strategy is to build and maintain ready forces and capabilities to conduct cyberspace operations. As well to defend the DOD information network, secure DOD data, and mitigate risks to DOD missions

Be prepared to defend the U.S. homeland and U.S. vital interests from disruptive or destructive cyberattacks of significant consequence. Plus, build and maintain viable cyber options and plan to use those options to control conflict escalation and to shape the conflict environment at all stages. Build and maintain robust international alliances to deter shared threats and increase international security and stability.

DoD requires forces and personnel that are trained to the highest standard In 2013 DoD initiated a major investment in its cyber personnel and technologies by initiating the CMFThis strategy sets specific objectives for DoD to meet as it mans, trains, and equip its forces and personnel over the next five years and beyond. HE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Defense (DoD) must work with its interagency partners, the private sector, and allied and partner nations to deter and if necessary defeat a cyberattack of significant consequence on U.S. homeland and U.S. interests. The DoD must develop its intelligence, warning, and operational capabilities to mitigate sophisticated, malicious cyberattacks before they can impact U.S. interests. To defend the nation, DoD must build partnerships with other agencies of the government to prepare to conduct combined cyber operations to deter and if necessary defeat aggression in cyberspace.

During heightened tensions or outright hostilities, DoD must be able to provide the President with a wide range of options for managing conflict escalation. If directed, DoD should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary’s command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure, and weapons capabilities. As a part of the full range of tools available to the United States, DoD must develop viable cyber options and integrate those options into Departmental plans. DoD will develop cyber capabilities to achieve key security objectives with precision, and to minimize loss of life and destruction of property. To ensure unity of effort, DoD will enable combatant commands to plan and synchronize cyber operations with kinetic operations across all domains of military operations.NTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES

All three of DoD’s cyber missions require close collaboration with foreign allies and partners. Given the high demand and relative scarcity of cyber resources, the DoD must make hard choices and focus its partnership capacity initiatives on areas where vital U.S. national interests are at stake DoD will focus its international engagement on: the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific, and key NATO allies.

Computer Memory Hacking

According to the North Carolina State University Study Guide, they give this definition of hackers:

Hackers are people who try to gain unauthorised access to your computer. This is normally done through the use of a 'backdoor' program installed on your machine. You can protect yourself from these by using afirewalland a good up-to-date anti-virus program. You would normally get such a backdoor program by opening an E-mail attachment containing the backdoor program. It is normal for such a backdoor program to send out more copies of itself to everyone in your address book, so it is possible for someone you know to unintentionally send you a malicious program. A few backdoor programs can work with any e-mail program by sitting in memory and watching for a connection to a mail server, rather than actually running from within a specific mail program. These programs automatically attach themselves to any e-mail you send, causing you to unintentionally send out malicious programs to your friends and associates (North Carolina State University, 2016).

The guide also goes onto to state that hackers break into computer user’s memory and/or RAM and can sometimes destroy all of the data in a computer user’s computer. The United States Department of Justice (2016) goes on to state that computer hacking is a federal crime and also infringes on intellectual property of the computer user that is being hacked. The North Carolina State University Study Guide (2016) says that many people who hack computers do it because it is a “challenge” and they seek the thrill of being able to have access to other people’s information. Computer hacking is something that can happen to anyone and anywhere. For example, this can happen from a personal computer to the United States government. Next I will give two examples of the common tools that hackers use to hack computers.

Computer hackers will sometimes hack computers out of revenge and they tend to target two different sources: government departments and personal computers. Due to this there are four types of hackers which emerge (North Carolina State University, 2016). The four different types of hackers are pranksters, fame seekers, educational and criminals. Next I will discuss three best practices that a computer user can use to guard against hackers.

The three best practices that a computer user can use to guard against hackers come from the North Carolina State University (2016):

A skilled hacker will do whatever it takes to break into your computer. Just ask Microsoft. Even a giant software company is not completely safe. The company was hacked by a Trojan-horse program hidden inside an innocent-looking email attachment. The Trojan horse replicated itself throughout Microsoft's internal network and eventually emailed proprietary secrets back to the originator of the Trojan horse. Follow these six steps to protect your computer from being hacked:

  • Don't let other people onto your computer unless you really trust them. A great way to do this is to password-protect your computer.
  • Don't ever open attachments. Avoid Trojan horses and viruses by following this rule. For more information, gohere.
  • Turn off file sharing if you don't need it. If a port scan is done on your computer, a hacker may find a back door to your machine and access your files.
  • Use an antivirus program and keep it up to date. For more information, gohere.
  • If you have a constant Internet connection, use a firewall. For more information, gohere.
  • Routinely update Windows software. This is extremely important. Updates fix many bugs and known security holes within the Windows operating system (North Carolina State University, 2016).

With these best practices kept in mind, this will protect computer users from being hacked. Next, I will discuss how hacking has effected organizations and modern society using two key examples.

Two key examples of how hacking has effected organizations and modern society include the first one I will mention from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI (2015) was involved in dismantling a criminal ring of hackers known as Darkode that was running in 20 countries worldwide. Charges were laid. In the New York Field Office of the FBI (2015), hackers had stolen more than 150,000 press releases to generate $30 million in illegal funds and the FBI (2015) charged nine people with two indictments.

Conclusion

This essay has described what hacking of memory and/or RAM means. This essay has examined the common tools that hackers use to hack memory of computer devices, also detailing two real-life examples of such tools in action. This essay has identified three best practices that one should use to protect their computers from being hacked. Finally, this essay has analyzed the significance of hacking in organizations and modern society.

References

North Carolina State University. (2016). Ethics in Computing. Online: North Carolina. Retrieved

from https://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/abuse/hacking/study.php

Riedel, B. (2016). Yale Global Online. New Haven, Connecticut: The MacMillan Center.

Retrieved from http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/world-after-911-part-i

The Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2015). Major Computer Hacking Forum Dismantled.

Online: Washington. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/pittsburgh/press-releases/2015/major-computer-hacking-forum-dismantled

The Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2015). Nine People Charged in Largest Known Computer

Hacking and Securities Fraud Scheme. Online: New York. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/nine-people-charged-in-largest-known-computer-hacking-and-securities-fraud-scheme

United States Department of Defense. (2015). Cyber Strategy. Washington: Department of

Defense. Retrieved from http://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/features/2015/0415_cyber-strategy/Final_2015_DoD_CYBER_STRATEGY_for_web.pdf

The United States Department of Justice. (2016). Reporting Computer, Internet-Related, or

Intellectual Property Crime. Online: Washington. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/criminal-ccips/reporting-computer-internet-related-or-intellectual-property-crime