CentCom Hacked and Obama ups the Ante

For more on the cybersecurity issues, I'm joined by Robert Siciliano in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a security expert for Hotspot Shield, a malware protection software from McAfee, one of the largest security technology companies. Well, Robert, you just heard what the president kind of outlined. It's just kind of broad strokes. Is he hitting all the right notes?

You know, it's— we've heard this before, and it's necessary. The attacks that have occurred we've heard over the past few years are simply getting a lot worse. And as a result, if the government doesn't step in and require corporations to up the ante, to include significant budgets for information technology for security, then it's going to keep getting worse.

Is this kind of a wake-up call, though? I mean, we saw Sony, we saw what happened yesterday, although there are some people— and I want to get your thoughts on this— who just see yesterday's incident as more kind of an embarrassment than really an attack, some calling it cyber vandalism. But is this kind of a wake-up call? Do you think that people are getting more serious about this issue now?

You know, we've had a lot of wake-up calls over the past year, and the recent hacks are no exception. You know, when you have personal information leaked that's not just usernames and passwords and Social Security numbers and credit card numbers, but internal communications that ultimately damage relationships relationships, in people's reputation and so forth, you know, that affects them for the rest of their lives. So, you know, it is about time that Obama steps up to the plate and basically holds these corporations' feet to the fire and requires strict legislation to increase the security within.

Robert, talk to me about the distinction. You know, we keep hearing all these different phrases—cyber vandalism,. We had somebody on our broadcast calling some of this stuff cyber graffiti, if you will, cyber terrorism. I guess there are different gradations. How do you break it down?

Well, you know, unless somebody is actually physically harmed or hurt, then I can't consider much of this terrorism in any way. Certainly graffiti and vandalism, you know, you have criminals essentially that are making statements, uh, some, uh, in behalf of terrorist organizations, others just to make a name for themselves, other for— others for ransomware and extortion. So there's a number of, um, labels you could put on it. Cyber war? I really can't call much of this cyber war. In the end, uh, many of the motivations are for fun and fame and also, of course, financial gain.

Why do you think it took CENTCOM so long to pull the messages down yesterday? I mean, it was compromised for what some consider a certain amount of time, about at least a half hour or so.

Yeah, you know, it's also getting through to organizations like YouTube, which is Google, and Twitter. You know, these companies are fielding a tremendous amount of calls and emails on a daily basis. My guess is that they— I mean, under an hour I think is pretty effective. I mean, try you yourself or anyone that you know to try to get in touch with Google or Twitter and get anything done in under a week, for that matter. So you're making a good point. So, uh, you know, yeah, yeah.

Well, let me ask you this. You've been at this for a while. Have you seen a market change over time in terms of sophistication, in terms of types of attacks, vandalism that's going on? I mean, how has the landscape changed since when you first entered this business to where we are today?

Well, you know, you've heard the term, uh, hackers are more sophisticated than ever. It's been used and abused, but it's simply true. They're organized more than ever, and they're more— today, more than anything, they're hacking humans. They're hacking human beings. They're hacking them via phishing emails. They're sending off emails that look like they're coming from legitimate entities, and they've gotten really good at sending across communications that look like they're coming from internal communications, from coworkers, from legitimate entities. Uh, you know, gone are the days scammer grammar. Today's phishing emails are just so sophisticated that, you know, pretty much anybody can get caught. You know, rarely if ever am I clicking links in the body of emails. Rarely am I, you know, if ever responding with personal information. And it's the same with everybody. You know, you have to be very diligent today because hackers, criminals are as diligent. You have to update your antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, firewall. You have to have a a virtual private network installed to protect all your wireless networks. One of my clients, Hotspot Shield, of course, that, that's an option. So, you know, today is one of those, you know, days where, uh, with Obama, you know, talking about cybersecurity and governments being hacked, you know, consumers need to pay attention and take control of their own personal security.

Well, Robert, it's an issue that's certainly not going to go away. I'm sure we're going to see more of you as the days and weeks progress. Thanks so much for joining us from Boston. Appreciate it.