Lots of attacks from cyberspace


(translation from German)

Borse Online
Week of January 15

Lots of attacks from cyberspace
NEWS FROM NEW YORK

America is still discussing the satire "The Interview". Even President Barack Obama  intervened in the discussion after cyber-terrorists attacked the Hollywood studio Sony Pictures and warned it not to show the film. Washington believed North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un is behind the attacks as a result of the comedy.

At a cybersecurity conference in Brooklyn, to which the US State Department and the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering invited Judith Germano, who once worked for the US Attorney's Office and is now a professor at New York University. She advised companies to work more closely with the authorities. Countries should coordinate more intensely, she said. A cyber attack on banks in 2012 was resolved only by the cooperation of 120 countries.

Other conference participants discussed that many hackers around the globe are already behind bars, without the public getting wind of the arrests. In order not to bring imitators any ideas, you do not make a fuss about it, they said.  Whether Ebay or JP Morgan Chase, Home Depot or Target - all have been attacked. The hackers come from Iran, China, Russia and the United States itself.

Host Professor Nasir Memon philosophized: "We know how to build buildings and streets but we still need to learn how to operate the IT systems we build safely."

But he pointed out one step: Some of the the 5000 students at his school regularly participate hacking competitions. In the laboratory of "Brooklyn Poly" they tinker with smarter password systems and develop safer chips. Thanks to such initiatives, it is now possible to detect a needle in a haystack.

Jason Bevis, Manager at IT security firm FireEye, stressed that it was possible to identify an intruder from among millions. Listed companies like CACI International or FireEye are getting more work. The order books of the industry are filling up like never before. Darling of Wall Street, however, is Palo Alto Networks. Its stock price doubled in 2014.