According to a survey the world’s computers are attacked more than 100 times in 1 second. Although these attacks have caused no major problems yet at least one attack in every 4.5 seconds does have an effect on a computer. This wave of attacks has shown a sheer increase in the recent past. One example was the cyberattack on Google that gave access to Google’s password system and was a case of identity theft stealing information from Google’s computers.
It is really a matter of concern why identity thefts are increasing at a very high speed. It is only about numbers and money. The attacked ones are individuals and mostly financial institutions. When going through the causes, it was found that it was mostly because of the nature of digital communication that has facilitated these white-collar thieves. And the most incredible point regarding identity theft is that it is very difficult to prove and enforce any legal action for an effective deterrent. However, both ammunition and power is with the law enforcement to fight identity theft successfully.
The Google’s password system was attacked in December and the ‘sophisticated and targeted attack’ took just two days. The company managed to save the passwords of Google users and the company took necessary action regarding security changes quickly. Although the theft took place in December, the disclosure was only made in January that along with Google some other companies were preys to the ‘highly sophisticated and targeted attack’. The intention was to gather information with reference to human rights campaigners.
The government of the country involved has completely denied even though the theft took place and the source code of some of the companies is already stolen. As a result Google has stopped its service in that country after the speech of the US Secretary of State who said that this ‘could hurt relations between the two countries’. The debate regarding security and confidentiality of the infinite computing systems has increased and has once again raised the question for millions of computer users. Statistics say that there was an increase of 70% in identity theft cases in just two years.
The problem with this theft started when an employee using Messenger. They clicked on a link that connected them to an infected website. This helped the intruders to access the personal computer of the individual and then eventually got connected to the entire system to affect it. Google is working on including a new layer of encryption and in securing the communication links further. Though the system that was attacked is still in use but with another name. The attacks were traced and it was clear that the work was done from China.
The intruders had access to information of some of the employees from Google and they were able to do so with some specific employees by then. The cyber criminals go on tuning more and more tactics to try and satisfy their intentions with better results. Many go to social networking sites to collect information about the users and with the help of these they are able to reach them. This has become easier because people now prefer broadband and they have started using Internet a lot. On the other hand, awareness is essential among computer users regarding those tempting and persuasive messages that lead to such results. Also it is important to report about any kind of theft or intruding activities so that they can be traced and cracked at an early stage.
Source:-nytimes.com , news.bbc.co.uk
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