Farouk Araie
Cape Town - The statement by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana that cybercriminals attempted to hack the SA Reserve bank (SARB) on August 12, an attack that was thwarted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), graphically illustrates that we are ill prepared in the realm of cyber warfare.
This attempted attack propels cyber warfare into a new dimension, and graphically illustrates that a perpetual race is in full swing between intruder and defender.
We are in the cross-hairs of international cyber thugs as our nation’s important institutions fall prey to these relentless intrusions.
These digital ambushes come in the insidious form of encryptions and ransomware among an arsenal of cyber weapons whose scope and depth is frightening.
According to Interpol, South Africa has the third highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide, at a cost of R2.2 billion a year. We witness 580 malware attacks an hour.
The digitisation of society has created progress and empowerment. But it also has a dark side; cybercrime and cyber warfare.
There is concern that while there is something of a digital equilibrium between cyber superpowers based on the assumption that sinister intrusions will result in retaliation, some state-sponsored attacks are intended to cause serious damage.
Hi-tech cyberattacks by non-state actors and global intelligence institutions continues ceaselessly across the digital highway, tantamount to a well co-ordinated military blitz. Many unreported attacks have been merely testing defences.
In a well planned cyber blitzkrieg, because our modern world is totally dependent on technology and the money system, we would be economically paralysed.
Over the past decade there has been frightening progress in the field of Information Technology. Cyber hackers have broken into systems once considered impregnable and secure from intrusion.
They have implanted Trojans and viruses into different computers to make them vulnerable.
The next event to rattle the entire world will be a sophisticated 911 mega-cyberattack.
Cape Times