UNIVERSITY

Cyberterrorism
FIGHTING THE DARK SIDE OF THE
INTERNET
viu.edu
Johnson Kinyua, PhD is the Dean of the School of Computer
Information Systems at VIU. He has been published widely in
peer-reviewed journals and international conferences.
By Dr. Johnson Kinyua
The recent data breach at Target
involving at least 70 million customer accounts
(pundits estimate that this figure
could be over 100 million) has again focused
our attention on the risks that we
face in this age of the Internet. The Internet
has revolutionized the way we work,
live, socialize, and conduct businesses.
Today, we have abundant connectivity
through computers at home and at work,
and on our laptops, tablets, smart phones,
etc. Even our cars and homes are finding
ways of getting connected. This Internet
environment is the so-called cyberspace,
and ubiquitous connectivity and the expansion
of cyberspace has resulted in
enormous gains in many sectors. It has
revolutionized the education sectors with
many universities now offering traditional
classes, hybrid classes, and online classes.
You can book your airline ticket without
leaving your home or office and check-in
for your next flight online. You can buy
almost anything via the Internet and have
it delivered to your home or office. You can
buy and sell stocks from anywhere via the
Internet. Applying for jobs nowadays is
conducted almost entirely online. The list
of things you can do is endless. The Internet
is also full of social media: Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
The common aspect of all Internetbased
interactions and transactions is that
the exchange of information can be personal,
confidential, or financial in nature.
While the benefits of using the Internet
are undeniable, there is also a dark side to
the Internet. Lurking in the same environment
are hackers, hacktivists, and other
malicious entities with different malicious
objectives. Some of these entities want to
steal personal information and use it for
financial gain; others want to cause harm
or damage to other entities or their adversaries
and so on.
Hacktivists use the Internet to promote
political ends, to promote free
speech or human rights, and to achieve
other objectives. Hacktivism traces its
roots back to the late 1990s, when a hacker
collective called Electronic Disturbance
Theater (EDT) protested against Mexican
government policies that were considered
oppressive by staging online versions of
sit-ins. These took the form of distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, a technique
using large networks of hijacked
computers to jam up websites with so
much traffic that they crash. The EDT’s actions
shut down several websites, including
that of the Mexican president, igniting
a flurry of concern about the security of
the internet.
Target’s data breach is one of the largest
in the history of the Internet when
compared with the previous two largest
data breaches in history. In August 2009,
130 million credit and debit card accounts
were stolen from the Heartland Payment
Systems servers, and at least 94 million
credit and debit card accounts were stolen
from TJX. In December 2009, 32 million
user accounts were stolen from RockYou.
Data breaches of smaller sizes occur all the
time but most companies would prefer not
to make the violation public for obvious
reasons. It was reported today, as I write
this article, that a data breach involving
27,000 customer records had occurred at
Barclays bank.
When it comes to cybersecurity, it is
unfortunate that companies tend to comply
as minimally as they can with regulations
because improved cybersecurity can
be costly; but a data breach could also spell
the demise of a company. Many Fortune
500 companies are still using outdated
software. Hackers often exploit vulnerabilities
in older versions of popular software
to load malicious programs into computers,
which can then be used to launch attacks.
Hence, there is a crucial need to secure
this cyberspace using several defense
mechanisms to ensure confidentiality,
availability, integrity, accountability, and
non-repudiation (an entity cannot deny
having conducted a transaction); and this is
what cybersecurity is all about. As a result
of the changing nature and sophistication
of attacks, there is a new demand for cybersecurity
specialists to fight cyber terrorism
at all levels of society, from multinational
corporations to governments.
Tech Giants in Court
In a drawn-out case against Google, Oracle has come away
the victor. The lawsuit arose out of Oracle’s claim that Google developed
their Android operating system using code copied from
Oracle’s Java code. Much of the case centered around the use of
application programming interfaces, commonly referred to as
APIs, which allow two different programs to communicate with
each other. For the sake of increasing programs which utilize their
software, companies often share their APIs freely. In this case, the
court has decided that APIs are able to be copyrighted. Oracle won
the case, but it seems the copyright question has not yet been definitively
answered. There are many voices on both sides of the issue
of intellectual property and ownership when it comes to APIs,
software, and coding. Following the case, Google was reported as
saying the verdict is “a damaging precedent for computer science
and software development.” They believe that different software
must be able to communicate for the internet to work. Oracle, on
the other hand, claims it is “a win for Oracle and the entire software
industry.” They believe one company shouldn’t be permitted
to blatantly copy another company’s work. The long-term results
are yet to be seen, but the question remains: How will software
companies create interoperable programs without violating copyrights?
Public’s Right to Information vs. Privacy
A man in Spain recently filed a lawsuit against search engine
giant Google in which the European Union Court of Justice ruled
that Google must submit to an individual’s request to have personal
information removed from the internet if it is no longer relevant.
The ruling bolsters controversy already present about the
ethics of companies like Google collecting and maintaining information
about individuals. The question to be answered is whether
the public’s right to access information is outweighed by the individual’s
right to privacy. The European Union has awarded a big
win to the individuals this time, and headlines reflect the victory.
“EU Court says people are entitled to control their own online
histories” reported The Washington Post.
50 University Magazine, VIU Summer 2014
Summer 2014 University Magazine, VIU 51
Summer 2014 University Magazine, VIU 51