I will continue to follow the developments on this story, as I feel it is important for business executives to understand the potential fallout and collateral damage that may occur from a cyber-attack, if proper safeguards and controls are not in place.
Last weeks DDoS attack on Twitter and Facebook, as it turns out, is a political response to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Russian forces into the Republic of Georgia last year. The New York Times reported that 45 million Twitter users were unable to access their accounts on Thursday, and Facebook’s chief security officer, Max Kelly, told CNET that the attack was aimed at a user known as "Cyxymu," who had accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and other sites affected by Thursday’s cyberassault. In an interview with The Guardian, the blogger said he believed the strike was an attempt to silence his criticism on the behavior of Russia in the conflict over the South Ossetia region in Georgia, which began a year ago on Friday.
One of the very first entries for this blog was to highlight how that invasion was one of the first examples of cyber-warfare, and how it could wreck havoc on our economic infrastructure. One year later, as it turns out, I was right (this is not an "I told you so moment."). Corporations need to heed what I’ve been saying for some time now – you are on the front lines of a war, that you don’t even know is going on. It is an unconventional war that can make even the mightiest army crumble. Data governance is one way of at least mitigating any damage (collateral or otherwise), from this war strategy. If proper safeguards are not in place, disruptions like this will become more common, and affect your firms’ ability to run an effective business operation.
To read the update on the Twitter DDoS attack, please click here: Attack on Twitter Came in Two Waves
My blog about this over a year ago is linked here: Cyberattacks: The New Form of Modern Warfare