How secure is your information?

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://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/10/07/us-military-drones-infected-with-mysterious-computer-virus/

http://news.discovery.com/tech/virus-hits-us-military-drones-111008.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2012/10/25/sony-ps3-hacked-again-all-future-games-decryptable-no-solution-possible/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security)

Jonathan Alsop