Ben Nikpour - Week 7: Six State Governments Have Been Hacked
At least six state governments have been hacked according to a report from Mandiant. Mandiant, a private cybersecurity firm, released a report on Tuesday that the US state governments were hacked beginning last year. Mandiant did not include a possible motive, but the report did include who is behind the attacks. APT41, a Chinese group most likely working for the Chinese government, was responsible for the breach. APT41 is also known to hack for “old-fashioned espionage purposes and for financial gain” according to The Associated Press. The report also did not include the names of the states compromised, just that six were hacked.
With all the humanitarian issues occurring around the world, it is easy to overlook the typical dangers of cyber threats. These threats are extremely dangerous as they breach undisclosed and top-secretive information to organizations and governments to use to their advantage. Also, the hackers gain access to information on millions of innocent civilians.
The problem with the situation, besides the major threat to security, is that it is easy and likely that these types of hacking will occur again. The Biden administration has announced its plan to protect the federal government due to the attacks. Similar attacks by Russian agencies were seen recently to exploit supply chain vulnerabilities through multiple American organizations. APT41 has also caused issues before as they were accused of targeting hundreds of different American organizations. We need to protect our companies and government agencies as best as humanly possible because if we don’t then we are an open target to hackers like APT41.
Through it all, China has denied all allegations against them.
What do you think are the implications of this hacking, and do you think that it will happen again?

I find it crazy that a government can just get hacked into by a hacker. If six state governments have been hacked, it is possible that a larger hack could occur in the future, potentially affecting the national government or a foreign government. These hacks are very troubling, as confidential data could be stolen which risks the safety of the citizens. Unfortunately, I do believe that another hack will happen unless something substantial changes in cyber security.
ReplyDeleteEven though there is cyber security, the internet is not secure. it is crazy how easy it is to hack into other websites, especially government websites.
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