Cyber Attack
Cyber Attack
Did You Hear the Wakeup Call
Over the past week hackers brought down numerous web sites to include MasterCard. The reason for these attacks was the arrest of Julian Assange in England, he is the purported head person of WikiLeaks, a web site that has leaked millions of pages of military and United States State Department secrets. He was not arrested for leaking classified information, but for rape charges lodged against him in Sweden.
In support of Mr. Assange, “an anonymous group of ‘hacktivists’, which is behind what it calls “Operation Payback”, claimed on Twitter that it was responsible for disrupting the credit card group’s (MasterCard’s) website.” [1]
Of course, I immediately thought of how secure are the United Kingdom’s web sites, especially those associated with Her Majesty’s Prison Service. If this group of “hacktivists” can disrupt, shutdown, and/or interrupt a sophisticated web site like MasterCard, one must be concerned about their governmental web site. I have some familiarity with HMPS and it is a very professional group of people. Yet with all of the new technology being developed and/or adapted, it is difficult for governmental agencies worldwide to keep up with the ever-evolving trends.