White House Hack Illustrates Need For Cyber Security

Recent news suggests that hackers have managed to subvert the State Department’s email server over the past year as well as the White House’s computer system in the past few days, reportedly even gaining access to private details of President Obama’s schedule. The hackers have not yet been able to access any classified information from the White House or the State Department, but James Clapper has noted the hacking attempts as more severe than any the United States has faced before.

US intelligence agencies have discovered tell-tale signs that the hackers were working for the Russian government, but no clear evidence or accusations have been publicly released. Kremlin spokesman Dimitryj Peskov has denied that the Russian government had a hand in the hacking of the computer systems. However, Russia’s cyberwarfare capabilities are not to be dismissed lightly, regardless if the Russian government was behind the attack. Russia has employed cyber attacks during their invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, and Russia has been accused of cyber attacking Estonia. US intelligence officials now list cyber attacks as the greatest threat to national security.

With concern over clear threats to the US power grid and other key elements infrastructure by means of cyber attack, it is high time we take active measures to prevent against cyber attacks and EMP.