Essay Example on Cybersecurity Issues

Question 1. How did this hack work/how was the security breach performed?

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In this new era of using information on the online basis, it comes with its inherent weaknesses. Most people prefer the online way since it is easy and fast. It is also available as long there is a connected to the internet. Commonly, people have avid knowledge on how to operate the different tools online to be in the know of how things work and avoid being a misfit in the new era. Information is easy to access but wisdom is rare. Wisdom is information that is accurate and resourceful. People are spending an investment to get their hands-on wisdom so that they are confident about what they are doing. However, they are individuals who have had their hands-on understanding technology, and they can just go about anything and access hidden knowledge.

Unfortunately, this was the case for The Democratic National Committee (DNC). People who were late revealed hacked into their system where they hid confidential information and exposed it to the public and the interested party. Evidently, for anyone to hack into an account, they must be gurus in the technology. They are called computer wizards.' They can go around any password and crash. Such that, they crash firewalls and access hidden information from accounts and websites. The competence of a guru can be measured by the type of firewall they can hack. As seen in this case, the guru did not attack a mere citizen but classified information that is known to few people if any. Therefore, the hack of DNC most probably was not the work of one person but a group of individuals. One person can break a firewall, but chances are they cannot break into a highly secured one without the help of the team. Therefore, chances are the person who hacked into the system of DNC was not one person but a group of individuals.

Moreover, the people who break firewalls are employed by other individuals who are interested in this hidden information. A hacker is never interested in the information they hack into; they are just hired. The DNC allegedly said that the people behind this hacking were the Russian government. Since these events took place in a politically charged atmosphere when such information mattered, possibly the Russian government had something of interest they want to know or uncover for the public to know as shown by Rebala, (2016).

Question 2. Who or what did this hack or breach affect? What was stolen, changed, or compromised?

The content of the leaked information was crucial because it exposed details of DNC. Approximately 19,000 emails were leaked with 8,000 attached documents. These documents had information about the people who funded Clinton's campaign and the worth of investment she had put into her campaigns. This is classified information which shows that possibly there are politically linked agenda that promoted the leaking of such information. After the controversy, the leaders of the committee resigned showing that the case was an interesting one. Most cases when things are compromised leaders stick together to come up with possible solutions which were not the case for DNC. This is possible links of compromise amongst their members as well. As shown from the emails that were leaked, chances are the ones behind the hack were trying to prevent Hillary Clinton from winning the election. After investigations by FBI, there was an unclear conclusion that showed that Russians did not want Hillary Clinton to win the presidency of the United States. This information was ambiguous as there was no prove to why the Russians never wanted Hillary to win the election.

The classified information about the financial details and donor information of Hillary Clintons campaign affected her chances to win the election. This is because people who fund a given candidate has power when the candidate wins. In that, to some extent, they get favors from the government as undercurrents after the candidates victory. This was undoubtedly detrimental to Hillary Clinton's victory. Surprisingly, after some of the different findings from the controversy, some of the experts differed with the opinion that Russians did not want Hillary to win the elections. In fact, it appeared that the integrity of some people at DNC was compromised and led to the leaking of some of these emails according to Blog, (2016).

The allegations that Russians never wished for Hillary Clinton to win the elections are deemed vague because there was no proof to it or any leads to show that Russians did not want Clinton to win as alleged. However, it was true that emails were leaked and the classified damaged Clinton's chances of winning elections. The truth behind who and why the emails were leaked remains unresolved and unaccounted for. Possibly, what can be said is that the group of hackers who hacked the emails were Russian experts hired by people who are not Russians to leak the emails and the damage Clinton's image as discussed by Eric Lipton, (2016).

Question 3. How could an organization prevent this breach or hack from occurring in the future?

As discussed above there are threats that companies are exposed to once they use technology in their operations. This begs the question what the preventive measures a company should use to shield itself are. Most times it is advisable to outsource a reputable company. A client should consider a company that has a reputation to build and has proven records of securing other company's information. In addition to that, the company must ensure that the outsourced firm understands the logistics of cybersecurity by researching on methods of securing its information.

Thereby, a company has to hire a technology people who are updated on the different ways hackers hack websites or private information. Technology changes very fast thus old fashioned methods mostly do not work. Hence managers in charge of Information Technology should be updated. Additionally, it is advisable to use passwords and usernames that are not easy to guess. This is by using the special letters on the keyboard that are not commonly used. These passwords toughen access control on the computers and websites as advised by Rampton, (2015).

In addition, the website login should expire within should periods of time. That way people who can have access to the internet are limited which makes it harder for hackers to hack a website using the login of the web. Moreover, updating information regularly on the site is a suitable practice since it helps in maintaining the freshness of a website. Such that should be a hacker hacks the information, he or she gets information that is not up to date. Adopting secrecy is a useful life skill while using the internet it is wise to keep passwords as secrets from people who are not trustworthy. Developing firewalls at different levels of access is another method of keeping of access only to few people. This makes the website accessible to few people at various levels of command.

Question 4. If you were a security professional working within the company, what would you advise management to do?

There are many and diverse proposals that companies should adopt as far as the safety of their information is concerned. However, there is first information that companies should take to secure their information from cyber crime. Therefore, below are the advises I would give to the clients I would work for if I were a security personnel.

The first common mistakes to avoid is ignorance. A company should be up to date with the occurrence of the technological advances. This touches the updating of information on their websites. Also, changing the passwords and logins of a website should be a habit in any company that uses technology. So that once someone is fired, they cannot access the company's information.

Additionally, I would advocate that the company keeps a back-up for all its information as seconded by Liu, S., & Kuhn, R. (2010). The technological devices have inherent weaknesses. These gaps can cost a company because sometimes information just disappears just like that. Thus, it is advisable to outsource companies you can have a back-up in case of anything. The company should entrust credible people to avoid exposing itself to possible threats.

In conclusion, the technological advances cannot be ignored in an era of technology. However, insulating against some of this threats is better than actual damage which shows the need for cybersecurity. Thereby, there can not be enough emphasis on the need for cybersecurity in different companies. Companies should analyze their engagements with technology and understand to what extent should they protect themselves against cybercrime.

References

Blog, W. (2016). Hillarys Big Lie: Did Russia Hack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Really? No, According to Intelligence Experts. Global search, 1.

Eric, D. E. (2016). The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S. The new york times , 1.

Rampton, J. (2015). 12 Tips to Protect Your Company Website From Hackers. Entrepreneur, 1.

Rebala, M. C. (2016). Here's The Evidence Russia Hacked The Democratic National Committee. Time , 1.

Liu, S., & Kuhn, R. (2010). Data loss prevention. IT professional, 12(2).