World War III - Already Happening?

Digital Attack Map

In our world, with the advent of the “net”, we find ourselves on the precipice of witnessing firsthand the sum of all human interaction.  Whether it is entertainment, games, business, education, love, crime, etc.  We are streaming live.  With all this activity, we find that the general experience of the internet is relatively fast and unabated.  

However, as with the gliding duck in the pond, most are unaware of the struggling underpinnings to make all that happen.  Breakdowns, fires, memory overloads, address conflicts, etc.  all in the cavalcade of anomalies that can occur around the clock.

However working around the clock, the network engineers and system administrators are quite aware of these challenging anomalies.  IT, for the lack of a better description, can be best described by Jerry McGuire in the movie named as such,

“Jerry Maguire: I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like to be ME out here for YOU. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, ok?”

Now there is an acronym to remember, IT = PSS (Pride Swallowing Siege). 

However, we digress, the problems go even further, from mishap, poor engineering, to the intentional malfeasance, i.e., spam, spyware, malware, and Distributed Denial of Service attacks.  This last item is now topping the news on a regular intervals.  No longer is DDOS and acronym for the technical, for now it has become a known vernacular among the public consciousness.  

Computer attacks are no longer the ventures of script kiddies, but have become eloquent orchestrated attacks.  However the most notable are the geopolitical attacks.  Most are unaware of these events, for there are no tweets, no meters, no alarms, just the resulting in access.

Movie "War Games" 1983

Enter Digital Attack Map.  This vehicle graphically interprets what normally would occur unnoticed with live vectors showing not only source and destination, but intensity.  This also can be seen over time, so you can see events that proceeded many months back.  the map resembles that of the old wargames probability exercise, but do not fear, these salvos are only digital.  One day, they may prove to be just as scary; however, for now, they are just informational.  In fact, if you pay close attention to the source and targets, you would think World War III is actually being enacted digitally.

Sept 1, 2014:  400 Gb attack on the Philippines

Now that being said, the actual originating source will be hidden, for these attacks come from all over the world; however, if you are smart, you will see the conspicuously a particular country (that usually participates) not participating, which may be the actual culprit. Attackers seldom include their own country during a world wide attack, but forget that using so many foreign hijacked machines and excluding your own country points the accusatory finger.

Also, tying them to news events may shed some light.  However, the target is definite, for regardless of the origin, the target is always clear.  With that, one looks at the events of last year and sees an inordinate interest in the Philippines on several occasions.  The Philippines have been the target of some of the largest attacks seen to date.  There is a story there for sure.

Now motivations are given, but know now that the public is plugged in and as this audience grows, correlations can be made and perhaps surmised to shed light on those who perpetrate.  Perhaps even stop the activity due to the exposure.  So go forth Digital Attack Map and reveal your secrets…

Source:

• http://www.digitalattackmap.com/

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 22 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 399-6085 x502