The tension caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is being keenly watched by international leaders. There has been terrible damage done to infrastructure, property, and human life, and bomb assaults are continuing. But there is one thing that draws people to profound thought. Why do we need a battle with bombs and guns now? when we can even conquer digitally! It's as easy as that: You succeed if you cause the network to crash. However, the truth in the Russia and Ukraine war is that both have used bombs and computers to destroy each other's infrastructure.
Ukrainian organizations have faced 2000+ cyber attacks during this according to a report and during this, more than 300 cyber attacks were illegal and against the defense and security sector. Furthermore, more than 400 cyber-attacks directly targeted groups and impacted civilians, industries, energy, the finance sector, software, and telecommunication.
Similarly, Danish banks were also affected by DDoS- Distributed denial of service attacks. Under DDoS, you cannot access the bank’s web services, however, it is not a hack as it does not disrupt your data in any way. But what if it is a hack?
A simple understandable example of this can be When there is an online meeting through Zoom or any other app, sometimes it asks to download the app. It looks the same as Zoom, but in reality, it is a hack. Similarly, some employees in corporate receive messages on behalf of their colleagues to transfer some funds as there is an emergency, which is generated by hacking software. Or the most common today is employees receiving emails from bosses to immediately make a payment. But all this is hacking.
Additionally, the other most common types of hacking we see and ignore are: you have a parcel delivery today, kindly make the payment and there is a link in this message. Also, some messages include you have won a lottery of so and so amount, to avail of the amount click on the link. All this is a way of hacking.
So what is the solution?
We always need to be alert and aware of cyber attacks and cyber crimes. The criminal can be in the city or across the border. This gives strong advocacy for using cryptocurrency. Compared to fiat currencies kept in bank accounts, cryptocurrency holdings in cold wallets are much safer. Is that a challenge to the imagination?
Agree or disagree, but today in the world of digitalization, digital or cyber-attacks are equally increasing. The attackers are becoming more sophisticated and unstoppable and to deal with this you need a better and more robust defense system. Be it OTPs, SMS, passwords, or something offline that mandates your approval via any login or OTP. It can also be a fingerprint, face id, retina scan, and others. Whatever the choice, we need a future where online security and convenience are appropriately balanced. However, we are a bit far from the right solution and security, but soon we may reach there.