December 20: The news arrived toward the end of last week that the computer systems and data banks of many US government departments and agencies had been hacked by foreign agents. Among those victimized were the Department of Homeland Security and the departments of Treasury, Commerce and Energy among others. Apparently the attackers used a vulnerability in a software program developed by a US company called SolarWinds to access servers across the country. One commentator likened the process to having your phone updated every night. There’s new data added and updates to software which go largely unnoticed. According to some, it’s the most serious attack on the US since Pearl Harbor.
The attack also affected governments and businesses in Canada, Europe and elsewhere around the world. Most analysts suggest that the attack was perpetrated by the Russian security service. It took patience and time to succeed, and was so intricate that most experts I have seen automatically rule out the vast majority of other players. Whoever is responsible, the damage is done and it will take many months to understand the extent of what has happened, and even longer – perhaps years – to correct the damage.
I have long believed that the next war will be fought in cyberspace. Indeed, I understand that hacks and attacks on government computer systems are pretty much a daily occurrence. There is a “battle” on-going that we unwittingly join simply by going on-line. It seems to me that we are blissful in our ignorance of the real dangers we face from cyber attack; imagine for example what would happen if the internet was to shut down for even a day or two.
The parallels with the current pandemic are obvious. We have been and will continue to be attacked by malicious “viruses” that have the ability to totally destroy our lives as we know them today. They are unseen, introduced willfully or by accident and can be undetected for long periods of time. They can transmit rapidly between hosts, and mutate as they do so. They seem to become endemic, and are extremely difficult to combat or eradicate once established.
We are certainly right to be concerned about the current and future impacts of the COVID pandemic; its’ effects will be with us for years. I also think that we need to wake up to the very real dangers we face in our increasingly computer / app-driven world. The scope of the recent hack demonstrates how complacent we have become, and how vulnerable we are to an “electronic pandemic” that will be much more damaging and long-lasting than anything COVID can send our way.