With the development of new technologies and their active use by millions of people all around the world, cyber-attacks appear more recently and affect a larger number of individuals and businesses. Even though people are aware of the problem and consider it to be serious, almost nothing is done to prevent the appearance of the problem. As mentioned by Singer (2014), “as much as 94% of attacks could be stopped with basic “cyber hygiene” (para. 11). For this reason, my biggest fear in cyberspace is that the population will continue its indifference and fail to follow fundamental precautions. As a result, hackers and criminals will take advantage of the situation and organize worse attacks that will bring complications even to those people who care deeply about their security and protection.
Because many agents cause challenges to the national security of the U.S., it is hard to list them according to severity. However, in my opinion, cyber-attacks should be placed at the top of the threat record. This opinion is based on the evidence that cyber threats are continually increasing in numbers, frequency, influence, and sophistication, and the groups of criminals and ranges of attack methods are expanding (Boot, 2015). In addition, as was already mentioned, businesses and professionals do not pay enough attention to this problem while constantly developing strategies to be prepared for other threats to the national security of the U.S. Thus, the contemporary time of innovation and technological advancement and the inability of people to take action make cyber threats the most severe for the safety of individuals, organizations, and the U.S. nation in general.
References
Boot, M. (2015). What is the greatest threat to U.S. national security? Commentary. Web.
Singer, P. W. (2014).What Americans should fear in cyber space. Los Angeles Times. Web.