There comes a very
annoying time in ever computer user’s life when they get the big message on the
screen “Trojan Detected”. Getting a computer virus can be one of the most stressful
things that can happen nowadays. Many people, however, only see the short term
effects of a computer virus. They can cause you to lose anything from pictures
and music, to making your whole computer completely useless. These problems
only scratch the surface of what computer viruses can actually do. They are
capable of causing huge societal problems that could very well change the way
you look at a “simple” computer virus all together.
There
are many frightening things about viruses, but something scary in particular is
how the military is becoming more dependent on technology. A recent report has
found that a hacker has somehow planted a key-logging virus into the unmanned
drones that the U.S. now uses for surveillance and attacks; it sends back
information to the hacker about what the drones have been programmed to do.
This virus is giving the hacker, a potential national threat, access to
valuable information regarding our military. It has been reported that as of
yet no vital information has been leaked. The societal impact of this
particular situation is that within five years of having the drones program
someone has been able to hack into them for whatever reason they saw fit. These
are drones that do carry weapon payloads as well. If an enemy were able to
utilize a different virus to infect the drones to attack an American target the
consequences could be devastating and almost entirely from the plot of the
popular Microsoft Xbox game Black Ops II tm.
Most
of the societal effects stemming from computer viruses boil down to a hacker
using malware or a virus to hack into a database, releasing private information, and gaining access to banking information. Millions
of Play Station Network users had their profiles compromised when a group of
hackers cracked into Sony’s systems. Sony stated that some credit card
information may have also been accessed as well. In one swoop a few hackers
using a system of virus planting and various other techniques gained a lot of
private information and even if they only got 1% of the users credit card
information that still leads to about 10,000 compromised bank accounts.
Remember
that virus do more than just screw up your computer, they can be utilized by
those with bad intentions to destroy your finances and affect, not only your life, but the society as a whole as the
dependence on technology grows. Always try to practice safety and visit trusted
sites and even then if you have to pay a small fee and get the benefits of
having all your information backed up securely and with some sort of insurance
coverage it might be in your best interest to do so.
Sources:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/virus-hits-us-military-drones-111008.htm