Table of Contents
The news
- In December 2020, the ‘SolarWinds hack’, a cyberattack discovered in the United States, emerged as one of the biggest ever targeted against the US government, its agencies and several other private companies.
- In fact, it is likely a global cyberattack.
- This has again brought focus on cyber vulnerability & security of many nations.
Background
- A hacker group believed to be affiliated with the Russian government gained access to computer systems belonging to multiple US government departments including the US Treasury and Commerce.
- The hack was detected by a cyber security firm called “FireEYE”
- The attack involved hackers compromising the infrastructure of SolarWinds (A company that produces a network and applications monitoring platform called Orion) and then using that access to produce and distribute trojanized updates to the software’s users.
- SolarWinds has 425 of the US Fortune 500 companies as customers which includes top ten US telecommunications companies, the top five US accounting firms, all branches of the US Military, the Pentagon, the State Department, as well as hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide.
The observation
- Although, former S. President Donald Trump refused to acknowledge the attack’s provenance but U.S. intelligence community certainly believe that Russia and its SVR intelligence agency launched it.
- United States has world-leading cybersecurity and technical capabilities. It can determine “attribution” easily and take counter actions.
Million Dollar Question
- What if such a huge cyber attack is launched on India?
Just Imagine
- Imagine if only a dozen or so nations were able to diagnose COVID-19 and take action?
The Core Question
- Just as there is a global health body, the World Health Organization (WHO), to better understand and combat health threats, Do we need a “cyber-WHO” to better understand and combat cyberthreats?
How will Cyber-WHO help?
Will nations participate in Cyber-WHO?
Lets hope to create Cyber-WHO
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