Cyber Terrorism Plan: First of all, my main objective is to force the US government to stop military action against Iraq and Afghanistan through this cyber attack. I will try to achieve these objectives by hitting the official website of the Pentagon and Department of Defense (DoD) Global Information Grid, through cyber attacking tools. First I will use sniffers for a few days to sense and steal the secrete information like passwords and IDs floating on the network. I will also consult some expert hackers over the Internet and try to capitalize on their experience and will learn some latest hacking techniques.
I will also consult previous cases of hacking and try to figure out their plans and the cause of failures if any. After obtaining this information, I will attempt to hack the main control systems and servers, download the confidential information and upload the logic bombs. These bombs will trigger and explode when the users of the system click some specific files and the whole information on the connected servers and hard drives will be corrupted. After that, I will slow down the network by attacking the website by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) (Curran, Concannon, & McKeever, 2008) attack and will clutter the e-mail boxes with hundreds of thousands of unwanted e-mail through e-mail spoofing. Logic bombs will corrupt the integrity and confidentiality of highly valuable information and DDoS attack will block the availability of information both to internal users and the general public. This attack will be so powerful that a long time will be needed to rectify the problems and completely restore the system. When anyone tries to access the file either on the desktop computers in the Pentagon or on its website from anywhere on the Internet, there will be a single message displayed “NO MORE BLOOD SHED. STOP THE WAR”. The news of hacking the website of the Pentagon will immediately get the attention of the media and this message will spread everywhere at the speed of light. While this news will help me to mobilize public options in the favor of curbing the war, it will also give a clear and strong message to the US government that it should stop its military operations overseas and forbade throwing the public money on the complete uncertain and illogical warfare. This strong public opinion will force the government to make some important strategic decisions for the bright of America.
As soon as I receive some information about a possible cyberattack on the network of the pentagon, I will immediately inform the Police and FBI. If I get a chance to give some piece of advice, I will suggest to the concerning officials to immediately update the hot sites of the database and devise a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. They should do their utmost endeavors to prevent the attack. Another important measure is to strictly monitor traffic on the network through intrusion detection software and avoid sharing any confidential information like passwords over the Internet. If they have to share necessarily, it should be encrypted very well. As part of the disaster recovery plan, first, protect the critical servers on a priority basis. The Recovery Process should comprise of two basic phases:
- An initial reaction phase where notifications are made, the staff assembled, information gathered and an action plan developed.
- The recovery phase, where resources are acquired, data recalled and services are restored as much as possible.
In case they fail to check the attack, they should have a backup plan. As soon as they feel any signs of intrusion, they should take immediate action and try to find the place from where that traffic of attack is mainly coming. The disaster recovery plan should be in action. They should also red alert the concerning agencies like CIA and NSA (Rollins & Wilson, 2007) to set up immediate response teams and try to locate the attacker. However, it should be noted that it is not always easy to locate the positions in case of DDoS attacks as the attacker use many unprotected systems to attack the target.
Reference List
Curran, K., Concannon, K., & McKeever, S. (2008). cyber warfare and cyber terrorism. hershey, PA: international science reference.
Rollins, J., & Wilson, C. ( 2007). Terrorist Capabilities for Cyberattack:Overview and Policy Issues. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service.