Role of Computer and Information Security in Defining Current National Security Issues - Coursework Example

Role of computer and information security in defining current national security issues Introduction Computers and informationavailability play a vital role when defining national security issues. Many famous terrorist groups are currently making use of computers and information available on the internet to communicate as well as planning the attacks. Apart from terrorist groups, most groups of gangsters also are currently using computers and internet information to plan their activities. Most of these groups’ members acquire all the necessary skills to coordinate attacks against governmental computers (Goodman, 2013). For instance, if a group of terrorists aims at attacking economy of a certain country; they will simply the computers that operate government agencies and civilian critical infrastructures in the country. The present paper purports to highlight the role of computers and information in defining national security issues. The current notion of national security has been just the same as the current digital electronic computers, which are broadly used in the world. Both are products of the Second World War. In the year 1946, it was the time when the first computer came into service at Pennsylvania University. A year later, the launching of the U.S. National Security and Central Intelligence Agency took place being authorized by the U.S National Security Act (Ching, 2010). Until in recent years, both computers and national security enjoyed a joint relation. Until later in the 1960s, the Chief Agencies of national security in the United States also served as the chief catalyst of computer researches as well as the research funders. They also served as the major customers of computer industries. Indeed, the advancement of computers and information availability via internet enhanced and shaped the national security strategies in the United States (ODay, 2005). Most people argue that the symbiotic relationship, which existed between computers and national security highly contributed to this national security reshaping in the United States. However, the information and communication technology is current as important to national security as it was some years back. Perhaps computers and information serves as of paramount benefit towards addressing of certain national security issues. This is because without computers, the current advanced forms of communications, which highly help in defining some national security issues, would be very impossible (Goodman, 2013). The potential futures seem to be belonging to the so-referred to as “smart” weapons, multifaceted command and control systems, telecommunication, electronic surveillance, satellites, and real-time processing. The termination of the Cold War seems to fasten the entire process of implementing digital computers and internet into command systems as well as into weapons rather than slowing it down (Ching, 2010). The United States due to its superiority in information and communication technologies turns out to be the leading nations in terms of securing stability. However, advancement of information and communication technologies is currently posing a great threat to national security due to the broad use of networked computers hence leading to increase of security issues in many countries. The broad use of internet plays a vital role when trying to define the current national security issues in the world. Contribution of internet towards national security issues is somehow ironical since internet was for many years being a project of DOD (Department of Defence) in the United States. National security groups in most countries are currently acknowledging that; the internet is a vital asset that requires maximum protection and attention. This is because the use of computers and availability of information via internet is highly contributing to both positive and negative effects towards national security (Goodman, 2013). One of the major national security issues that link with the use of computers and availability of information through the internet is cyber libertarians. These are typically young as well as talented computer technicians who seem to reject almost all assumptions of national security establishments. Most people argue that the use of computers and information via the internet is not only leading to the end of the state of national security, but also the end of states of nations (Ching, 2010). Most terrorist groups use the internet to attack governmental data usually done with malicious codes, which alters all the stored data in servers leading to output of inaccurate data. The cyber attackers mainly scan the entire internet to determine the data programs that are not fully secured or lacking appropriate security software. Once these cyber attackers infect the computers with malicious codes, they are now able to control the computers remotely by sending commands to damage the stored data as well as attacking other connected computers hence resulting to a major national security issue (Goodman, 2013). This is among the major national security issues that are currently affection most countries in the entire world. The current use of computers and information availability has highly enabled most terrorist groups to easily plan and organize their attacks (ODay, 2005). Currently, there are national issues related to cyber terrorism and cyber war as well as a number of other security threats that national security agencies must put into consideration. The national security officials currently view the use of computers and internet information as acting as a “highway” for various insecurity issues in most countries. The character of computers and information is dramatically changing for the past few years since, many terrorist groups are using computers and internet for harmful purposes other than the indented computer purposes. The use of computers and information availability is easing the planning of terrorism activities since the terrorists’ groups’ leaders are now able to plan and organize their activities from different geographical areas (ODay, 2005). The usage of computers and the internet has currently reached 60 million users, hence promoting the increase of insecurity issues in many countries since many people are able to access any necessary information on the internet to conduct criminal activities. However, computer advancement has resulted in increased use of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, among many other social networks, which highly benefit terrorist groups or other criminals while coordinating their activities. Computers have contributed to access of information by everyone, anytime and everywhere and this has highly contributed to national security issues (Goodman, 2013). Over the past years, the overarching narratives of computers and information contributing to national security issues have led to the growth of cybercrimes. In the last few years, viruses as well as other computer malware happened because of computer brilliances showing off their skills to their peers. However, most criminal gangs currently bent on gaining fund depend the use computer security threats (Ching, 2010). This has highly resulted in many national insecurity issues in many countries, hence affecting most of both these countries economically and socially. For instance, in the year 2010, ideological and political promoted cybercrime was the dominant theme in the whole world. This was not only focusing on discussion of information safety, but as about international connections as well. The main objective of this cybercrime was to gain access to Chinese human rights activists’ accounts. However, the idea failed. Due to this failure, Google decided to terminate its search towards the Chinese mainland. This also resulted in many nations’ governments dropping from using internet explorer temporally after learning that, criminals used this web-based page to plan the attacks. Another example of cyber terrorism was the Stuxnet threats. This new type of worm infected all the Iran’s nuclear infrastructure Information Technology systems in the year 2010 (Ching, 2010). This attack aimed at disrupting information technology systems that operated the Iran’s nuclear infrastructures hence evidence that the use of computers and information availability via internet usage is highly contributing to major national security issues. Most national security officials are currently reporting that most terrorist groups and gangsters are using computers as well as an internet information to organize and plan their attacks. For instance, terrorist leaders use computers and internet to coordinate their terrorist activities from any geographical location (Goodman, 2013). They are mainly organizing for cyber terrorists since these attacks are beneficial to them, they do not present themselves physically in the attacks hence preventing them from injuries. For instance, the military of the United States is highly supported by advanced technology equipments and services, which includes the use of computers, communication systems, and electronics (Ching, 2010). The future of U.S Military may be highly affected by the distinction between military and civilian targets. Therefore, the communication and information systems such as computers that are highly used in the critical infrastructure of the United States may serve as a target of most terrorist groups. Most terrorist groups due to the current broad use of computers and information availability targets nations’ civilian computer systems in order to disable all governmental communication and computer systems so that they can simply their bombing attacks (Goodman, 2013). However, many observers argue that terrorist groups make use of computer internet to communicate during their attacks via their websites, emails, or even chat rooms mainly to raise funds for their activities. These groups also use computers to see gain overtly more intelligence for their future targets, hence portraying the vital role that computers and internet information play towards contribution of national security issues (NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Responses to Cyber Terrorism & Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, 2008). There are three current methods that criminal groups use computers and information to conduct their attacks. A computer attack refers to actions that criminal groups direct against governmental computer systems mainly for disrupting the stored information, change the system processing, and disrupt all its operations. Therefore, different types of computer attack methods target different places as well as using different weapons. This paper outlines three different forms of computer attacks (Ching, 2010). Firstly, there are physical computer attacks that involve conservative weapons directed to disrupt computer transmission lines or facilities, hence highly bringing many insecurity data issues within governmental institutions. This type of attack disrupts a computer’s reliability as well as data availability hence resulting to such systems outputting incorrect or inaccurate data. For instance, if such disrupted computers operate in the department of finance, such national insecurity issues severely affect the economical status of the involved country (ODay, 2005). Either creating heat, fragmentation, or either disrupting communication line results to physical attacks. The other form of computer attack is electronic attack, which involves usage of electromagnetic energy to overload the computer circuits. This type of attack disrupts a computer’s reliability through the generation of high volumes of energy that overloads the computer circuit boards, its transistors, as well as other electronics (Ching, 2010). The effects of this attack penetrate into the computer system, erasing its electronic memory, upsetting its software, or even disabling all the computer components permanently. Lastly, there is a computer network attack, which normally involves the use of malicious code to cause harmful effects to the computer of an enemy exploiting software, configuration, and computer security weaknesses (ODay, 2005). Criminal groups use this form of computer attack to disrupt the authenticity and integrity of the enemy’s data with malicious codes. Lastly, national security agencies face very frustrating dilemmas due to the national security issue related to the use of computers and internet information. First, there is need of all nations’ governments to implement measures of securing the computer systems before intercepting and interpreting digital communications (NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Responses to Cyber Terrorism & Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, 2008). This is because the continuous occurrence of terrorism activities, which are highly influenced by the current broad usage of computers and information availability via the internet, is posing negative impacts not only on countries’ economic status but also to the citizens. Conclusion The global advancement of internet and computer-networking development as well as information availability plays a vital role in defining the current national security issues. What seems to be most essential is for national security agencies find new ways of preventing computer-related insecurity issues such as cyber terrorism. However, the information and communication technology is current as important to national security as it was some years back (Ching, 2010). Perhaps computers and information serves as of paramount benefit towards addressing of certain national security issues. The use of computers and information availability has highly resulted in many national insecurity issues in many countries, hence affecting most of both these countries economically and socially. Most terrorist groups due to the current broad use of computers and information availability targets nations’ civilian computer systems in order to disable all governmental communication and computer systems so that they can simply their bombing attacks (ODay, 2005). It is, therefore, the duty of national security officials to find means of addressing these security issues. References Ching, J. (2010). Cyberterrorism. New York, NY: Rosen Central. Goodman, M. A. (2013). National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. Monroe, OR: City Lights Publishers. NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Responses to Cyber Terrorism, & Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism. (2008). Responses to cyber terrorism. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press. ODay, A. (2005). Cyberterrorism. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Read More