Cyber-Attacks Getting Respect All Over The World

Cyber-attacks continue to gain more popularity among both organized crime and “hacktivists.” Their efficiency and influence cannot be overestimated. The increasing rate of cyber-attacks is a cause of concern for governments, businesses, and banks in different countries.

A truly interesting fact: Hackers are not limited in the choice of their targets — they choose businesses and companies in different fields. In previous months, Slack, GitHub, and British Airways experienced cyber-attacks. Two weeks ago, the Inquisitr reported about continuous cyber-attacks on American power grids.

“Edison Electric Institute has reported that since 2013, the power grid cyber-attacks have increased significantly and now ‘continuously’ take place. The United States power grid has more blackouts than any other country in the developed world, according to new data that spotlights the country’s aging and unreliable electric system. The data by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) shows that Americans face more power grid failures lasting at least an hour than residents of other developed nations.”

It’s not only Europe and the U.S. that suffer from hack attacks. According to the recent reports of the Australian defense force intelligence unit, the rate of cyber-attacks on Australian businesses and government increased by 20 percent in 2014. The Australian Signals Directorate claims that most attacks are directed towards financial and energy sectors. The ABC reports that the Commonwealth Bank alone (the biggest bank of Australia) suffers from millions of cyber attacks every day:

According to CBA’s chief of information security, Ben Heyes, serious attacks are rapidly on the rise.

“We’re seeing the tools that are available for executing a cyber attack are becoming more widespread and becoming increasingly more sophisticated and, with that, we’re seeing a large increase in the volume of attacks,” he observed. “We have categories of attacks that are designed to disrupt services and there are categories of attacks that are designed to gain access to an organisation’s internal environment – to potentially withdraw from that intellectual property or data that’s important.”

The Australian government opened a Cyber Security Centre in November of 2014 in order to provide a higher level of cyber defense, but it seems like it didn’t have much effect on the overall situation. Perhaps it would be wiser for countries to cooperate on an international level to find a solution to the increase of cyber-attacks.