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The Firesale or: The real reason we need more awesome Bruce Willis movies...
by Bradley Allen, Reviewer
So, what is a "Firesale"? According to our friends that made Die Hard 4, it is an all out attack on the infrastructure of the United States. Attacks against everything from water and sewage plants, Internet infrastructure, to our power infrastructure could be included in a Firesale. The difference between this and the attacks that happen every day is that these attacks are coordinated to be completed in a way that will bring the support and service structure of the United States, or whatever country is attacked, to its knees. The alphabet soup of government agencies will be slow to respond or may not be able to respond at all due to limited communications and power.
While the explosions, mass amounts of gunfire and cars knocking helicopters out of the sky in Die Hard 4 are most likely not part of the real life equivalent of a Firesale, the overall implications are somewhat close. The potential for disruptions of electricity to large areas and the failure of city infrastructures are only a start to a large scale attack. This is where a type of software called SCADA comes into play.
SCADA and what it is...
SCADA (Scary sounding huh?) is a type of software used to control various parts of the world infrastructure. Things like power plants, public transportation, water and gas plants and many other things are all controlled using this type of software.
The problem with all of this is many of the SCADA systems are being put into the public domain. Every time one of these systems is connected to the Internet it is put at risk. When developed, many SCADA systems were not hardened sufficiently for exposure to the Internet.
Simple attacks can bring many of these systems under the control of a malicious hacker over a small amount of time. There have been several reports of nuclear power plants, water and sewage treatment plants and even public transportation systems having been cracked without much trouble over the last decade or so.
And what can we do about it?
Keeping your personal computer secure is one step in the larger race to avoid many of these problems. Many attacks on our national infrastructure have been propagated using viruses that attack these systems either by design, or by accident. As many of us over the years have been witness to, viruses can spread quickly using home computers, office computers and servers on the Internet.
The easiest way to keep you computer secure is to follow these simple steps.
While there is never any guarantee that your computer will remain safe and unharmed, using the steps above is a start. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Especially when a super secret organization full of malicious hackers and bad guys in general which recently split from the NSA (or whoever) is ultimately trying to screw up your weekend push for level 70 in World of Warcraft.
Send feedback to blog@toptenreviews.com
So, what is a "Firesale"? According to our friends that made Die Hard 4, it is an all out attack on the infrastructure of the United States. Attacks against everything from water and sewage plants, Internet infrastructure, to our power infrastructure could be included in a Firesale. The difference between this and the attacks that happen every day is that these attacks are coordinated to be completed in a way that will bring the support and service structure of the United States, or whatever country is attacked, to its knees. The alphabet soup of government agencies will be slow to respond or may not be able to respond at all due to limited communications and power.
While the explosions, mass amounts of gunfire and cars knocking helicopters out of the sky in Die Hard 4 are most likely not part of the real life equivalent of a Firesale, the overall implications are somewhat close. The potential for disruptions of electricity to large areas and the failure of city infrastructures are only a start to a large scale attack. This is where a type of software called SCADA comes into play.
SCADA and what it is...
SCADA (Scary sounding huh?) is a type of software used to control various parts of the world infrastructure. Things like power plants, public transportation, water and gas plants and many other things are all controlled using this type of software.
The problem with all of this is many of the SCADA systems are being put into the public domain. Every time one of these systems is connected to the Internet it is put at risk. When developed, many SCADA systems were not hardened sufficiently for exposure to the Internet.
Simple attacks can bring many of these systems under the control of a malicious hacker over a small amount of time. There have been several reports of nuclear power plants, water and sewage treatment plants and even public transportation systems having been cracked without much trouble over the last decade or so.
And what can we do about it?
Keeping your personal computer secure is one step in the larger race to avoid many of these problems. Many attacks on our national infrastructure have been propagated using viruses that attack these systems either by design, or by accident. As many of us over the years have been witness to, viruses can spread quickly using home computers, office computers and servers on the Internet.
The easiest way to keep you computer secure is to follow these simple steps.
- Keep your operating system up to date. Simply downloading and installing the latest security updates while using Windows, Mac OS X or Linux are a simple way of staying secure. Most systems offer a helper application that will download and install these updates for you, or at very least alert you if updates are available.
- Make sure you have updated antivirus or internet security software installed at the very least. Whether you use Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, you have the capability to get and pass on viruses. Having a good, updated virus scanner installed and running at all times can prevent your computer from becoming a pawn in a much larger attack on the world infrastructure. If you need help finding information about Internet security suites you can visit the TopTenREVIEWS Internet security suite review site.
- Education is always the next step in security. Make sure you have a basic understanding about how your computer works and what types of things to avoid. In case you weren’t expecting it, this is the part of the article where I tell you not to open email attachments or download programs from sites you don’t know. Yes, this includes pretty screensavers and desktop backgrounds; regardless of the “cuteness” level of the included puppies, kittens, or small children doing things that small children do.
While there is never any guarantee that your computer will remain safe and unharmed, using the steps above is a start. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Especially when a super secret organization full of malicious hackers and bad guys in general which recently split from the NSA (or whoever) is ultimately trying to screw up your weekend push for level 70 in World of Warcraft.
Send feedback to blog@toptenreviews.com
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