Page 24 - AT

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 13 January 2020
AP Explains: Not all cyber threats equally worrisome

By ERIC TUCKER and governments have to
Associated Press confront is, "Do you have
WASHINGTON (AP) — West evidence that your sys-
Virginia reported unusual tem was breached? That's
cyber activity targeting its what you're really worried
election systems. The Texas about."
governor said the state was The tactic is also significant-
encountering attempted ly more subtle than pinging
"attacks" at the rate of a network, and thus often a
"about 10,000 per minute" preferred technique for so-
from Iran. Information tech- phisticated hackers loath
nology staff in Las Vegas to raise alarms.
responded to an intrusion, "If your attempt is to try to
though the city says no compromise an organiza-
data was stolen. tion, you probably want to
All told, state election offi- be a little more surreptitious
cials in at least two dozen about it," McNamara said.
states saw suspicious cyber ___
activity last week, although THE THREAT TO PUBLIC CON-
it's unclear who was behind FIDENCE
the efforts and no major Practically speaking, there's
problems were reported. a big difference between
Long before a targeted scanning a network for
U.S. strike killed a top Ira- This Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, file photo shows a polling place at Southside Elementary in Huntington, vulnerabilities and actually
nian general, there were W.Va. Associated Press breaking into it and extract-
already concerns about ing sensitive information.
foreign efforts to hack common. In fact, federal place or that they've been networks of major Ameri- But experts say even scans
American institutions and officials believe election compromised," he added. can corporations and may nonetheless benefit
elections. The conflict with systems in all 50 states were ___ stealing their trade secrets, Russia, or any other country
Iran has only exacerbated probably targeted during THE THREAT OF SPEARPHISH- and with Russian hackers looking to undermine faith
those fears. the 2016 election, though ING who stole emails belonging in elections, particularly if
Yet as the recent spate of the number of known Experts say many major to the Hillary Clinton cam- unschooled officials sound
reports makes clear, not all breaches — including in hacks originate not with paign during the 2016 presi- unwarranted alarms. The
suspicious cyber activities Illinois and a couple of network scans but with dential election. American public may not
are equally troublesome, counties in Florida — was spearphishing emails — "That might be evidence of appreciate the distinction
the work of a foreign gov- significantly more modest. messages that appear le- a more targeted effort. It between activities that
ernment or a precursor to A Senate intelligence com- gitimate but that actually may be that one of those is may be fairly routine and
the type of Russian interfer- mittee report said it found launch malicious software going to get through, and full-blown cyberattacks.
ence seen in the 2016 elec- no evidence that votes or that, once opened, can all you need is one," said "I believe that one of Rus-
tion on behalf of President voting registration systems give an intruder access to Suzanne Spaulding, former sia's objects is to undermine
Donald Trump.A look at were altered. the network or trick a target under secretary for the Na- public confidence in the
what kinds of cyber activi- IS THE ACTIVITY WORRI- into unwittingly surrender- tional Protection and Pro- legitimacy of the outcome
ties are worrisome — and SOME? ing a network password. grams Directorate at the just as a way of weakening
what are not: It can be, to the extent It was a ploy used by Chi- Department of Homeland us," said Spaulding, now a
WHAT SORT OF ACTIVITY IS that it demonstrates that a nese hackers charged by Security. senior adviser at the Center
THIS? hacker has set his sights on the Justice Department in She said the first big ques- for Strategic and Interna-
Generally speaking, what exploring — and possibly 2014 with hacking into the tion that organizations tional Studies.q
the states are reporting returning to — a particular
are efforts to probe their network, and especially if a Detroit nonprofit to hold free
networks for vulnerabilities, target is part of the coun-
be exploited for potential Much depends as well programs on cybersecurity
or weaknesses that can try's critical infrastructure.
intrusion. "Think of it in the on the volume and fre-
real world as a bank rob- quency, since repeated, DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit- Registration is required. ties to learn about tech-
ber walking by a bank — unwanted contact with a based nonprofit focused “Science fiction movies nology, programming and
first thing they're going to website can overwhelm an on technology education have always portrayed fu- cybersecurity games.
do is case the joint, and the internet-connected server, and workforce develop- ture emerging technology Participants must regis-
same thing happens in the effectively shutting it down ment training will present and activities long before ter for access to practice
digital space," said former in what is known as a dis- two free events about cy- the technology occurred competition software.
FBI agent Anthony Ferran- tributed denial of service, bersecurity. in real life,” Byrd-Hill said. “Cybersecurity special-
te, who served as director or DDoS attack. The drama “Blackhat” will “Sometimes, movies have ists must understand how
for cyber incident response In general, though, when it be shown Saturday after- portrayed the technology to engineer the internet
at the White House's Na- comes to poking around a noon at the Wilder library 30-plus years in advance. and computer networks
tional Security Council. network, "I would certainly branch and Monday at This is where society is go- to stop cyber hackers and
The culprits are doing the put it in a less severe cate- the Redford branch as ing and why you need to attackers,” Byrd-Hill said.
cyber equivalent of wig- gory of threat activity than, part of Uplift Inc.’s Future be prepared for it.” “Many companies and
gling a doorknob, said Fer- say, an intrusion," said Luke Tech in Movies series, ac- Video gamers also are in- government agencies
rante, the global leader of McNamara, a principal an- cording to Ida Byrd-Hill, vited to take part in Uplift’s utilize video game perfor-
the cybersecurity practice alyst at FireEye, a cyberse- the organization’s presi- Game Workz series that mance to select employ-
at FTI Consulting. curity firm. dent. Byrd-Hill will lead a starts Jan. 25 at the Wilder ees.”
Scanning for network vul- It's "certainly not evidence discussion on cybersecu- library branch. The pro- Both programs are de-
nerabilities is remarkably that an intrusion has taken rity during each showing. gram features opportuni- signed for adults.q