Cyber Polygon Is Already Here
"Suddenly Died" — but for computer infrastructure.
The simulation titled Cyber Polygon may have been postponed, but that doesn’t mean the onslaught of Cyberattacks will slow down. In fact, lately, it seems the pace has picked up dramatically.
Cyber Polygon was to be the Event 201 of Cyber Pandemics. While the INTERPOL & World Economic Forum sponsored event ultimately didn’t take place (yet) — a dramatic and very public uptick in massively coordinated cyberattacks against government agencies, critical services, and businesses alike have become rampant.
In just the last few months, a range of widespread Cyberattacks have been launched against hospitals, police, municipal services, and countless private and public businesses. The impact breadth has likewise substantially widened — taking out communications platforms and other critical infrastructure.
Perhaps it’s simply an Enterprise Fraud scam — manifest to sell tools that supposedly prevent ransomware or prevent malicious actors from gaining remote access to computers they should not have.
Whether the hackers causing all of this mayhem are directly affiliated with foreign governments or non-state actors matters little. What is important to note is that with modern Cyber Warfare capabilities — at some point, some group or agency is ultimately responsible for the vulnerabilities, intelligence collection, and security of these systems.
As an analogy, if the CDC and/or FDA are (at least partly) responsible for the botched response to COVID-19 — with respect to the ‘Vaccine Disaster’ debacle…
Then perhaps the NSA may be ultimately responsible for protecting society against the harms caused by the nature of the advanced technological penetration of critical infrastructure we are starting to see spread. Police stations, hospitals, and schools are just a sample of the types of organizations widely being targeted by hackers — causing them to close, or operate at greatly reduced capacities.
Doesn’t anyone (the NSA?) know who is responsible for these malicious activities? Isn’t there a fingerprint or trail leading back to a group of hackers at some point? Who is responsible for investigating these matters — and are they competent? Isn’t this one of the NSA’s primary functions? If not them, then who would have the technical sophistication required to get to the bottom of it? Again if they’re not, then what’s the sense in calling them the National Security Agency?
Would they simply cause a secondary disaster — by way of a botched response — as seen with respect to COVID-19 injection campaigns?
Very thought provoking. I think the NSA’s ability (motivation, even?) is greatly attenuated by something/someone/organization higher up. Only a rogue -- like Snowden -- might be able to do it. But those few and far between.