Why Is the Government Vulnerable to a Simple Cyber Attack?
Posted on July 9, 2009 |
A wide-ranging attack on government and corporate Web sites that began last weekend and is continuing seems, at least so far, to be causing more confusion than damage. A denial of service (DoS) attach hit a number of government and business sites in the U.S. and South Korea. Some successfully fended it off, others were crippled to varying extents for varying periods of time. The attack is only designed to slow or block access to sites, not penetrate them, so there is no danger to data and the main effect is inconvenience for users.
Contrary to widespread reports that seem to have originated in the South Korean government, little evidence has come to light to suggest that North Korea is behind the attack. That's not to say the North Koreans don't have something to do with it, just that the evidence is lacking.
But whoever is behind this, it is disturbing to learn that a number of government agencies are still vulnerable even to a relatively unsophisticated attack, one that most Web-savvy businesses have long since learned to deal with.
