The infrastructure of the United States is, unfortunately, vulnerable to hackers, and it is now only a matter of how much and when.
Although hacking the U.S. infrastructure is within the realm of possibility, there are a bunch of experts running around thinking about how to resolve the issue and make the security even more fortified. Both sectors, whether public or private, are involved to alleviate the risks of such upheaval, but there will be huge risks nonetheless.
The latest, most controversial kind of attack happened in December last year, when Ukraine's power grid has been hacked. This was an incredibly brilliant and sophisticated attack, according to a security expert in Wired. This attack opened up a lot of possibilities with regards to the infrastructure systems in the US, and what is more alarming is that Ukraine's system had a better security that America's itself.
During this cunning power grid hack, an operator watched, to his horror, his computer's cursor moved by itself, logged his account off and changed its password. Immediately, what it did next was shut down a bunch of what they call "circuits", leaving 230,000 people powerless and plunged in the dark during the winter.
The country did not fail to point its finger to Russia, which it suspects to be the country behind the attack, although evidence will never be sufficient to support this claim, as hackers are often the most brilliant people when it comes to making sure there are no digital footprints left behind. The attack, however, only lasted for six hours, because manual overrides existed as a substitute to provide power to these homes.
Albeit the damage was minimal, the impact and statement made were absolutely significant and groundbreaking. The US consists of infrastructures that are being given extra attention when it comes to infrastructures, such as water and electricity, seeing as they are widely vulnerable due to their dependency and age.
Other infrastructures have also been vulnerable to ransomware attacks, such as hospital records systems, according to PC Mag. With this year being one of the most controversial presidential elections the US has ever had, due to a fear of Republican candidate Donald Trump rising into absolute power, the voting systems are also quite surely being considered by hackers as targets for attacks.
Fortunately, there is consolation upon knowing that experts are also working every minute to at least improve and enhance these security measures. But just like how there is no country that is perfectly invulnerable to military threats, it is just the same in the cyberspace: every security system has a hole, one way or another.