This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube video titled "Israeli Airlines and Stock Exchange Web Attacked, Infrastructures Vulnerable @McAfeeConsumer" (posted 2012-01-24). The excerpt is an English interview segment on Fox Business Network between a host (Speaker A) and cybersecurity expert Robert Siciliano (speaking from Boston). They discuss recent large-scale cyberattacks—DDoS hits on Israeli airline websites, banks, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange—the broader risks to critical infrastructure and financial systems, potential economic and societal impacts, and the need to beef up cyber defenses.
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All right, when we come back, you try hijacking an Israeli jetliner. Virtually never happens, right? Their security is that good. So imagine red-faced Tel Aviv officials hearing not only did computer criminals hack into the national airlines, but also scores of Israeli banks, businesses, and even the country's main stock exchange as well. All hacked, and within the same 24 hours. Think they're scared? Wait till I tell you how much we're scared. The Fox Business Network, the power to prosper. Holy cow, massive hack attacks in the Holy Land. Israeli websites ranging from the national airline to banks, even the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, all hit in the latest round of attacks they think are coming out of Saudi Arabia. My next guest says don't think America isn't watching, because if hackers can stop the airlines, banks, and stock exchange in one of the most, at least defensive, impenetrable countries on the planet, how stable do you think we are? Cybersecurity expert Robert Siciliano says we need to beef up our defenses. You know, Robert, my first reaction, anyone who's ever flown, you know, any Israeli airline, or if you've just been into Israel itself, You know that they pay a high, high, high degree of attention to security. So they could be hacked, anyone can.
Yeah, no question. At this point, the attacks on the stock exchange and the airline were on their website, what's called denial-of-service attacks, where criminals will send, well, botnets or other computer code to access that website, thousands of hits at a time, making it difficult for anyone else to access the site. It crashes the site. It's far from actually crashing the stock exchange or a plane for that matter, but still, the fact that, you know, this is occurring is certainly alarming.
You know what worries me, Robert? Because my theory has always been we're always waiting for another 9/11, we're always waiting for another huge attack, and I think we should be on guard against that sort of thing, but I think in these sophisticated times you could do huge economic damage just shutting down a bank network, shutting down or wiping out people's accounts on paper so it appears that they have zero. That could do a lot of damage. And we have seen a stepped-up wave of attacks in financial services, financial areas, in that regard. We are very vulnerable to that, aren't we?
Yeah. McAfee's Threat Labs experts, you know, have been following this and doing studies and making predictions. And we're all concerned that attacks on critical infrastructure could, in the end, affect loss of life. Electricity and gas and water, food supply, you know, in any way, shape or form is attacked and shut down for any extended period of time, even financials at some level, it could definitely cause, you know, mass harm. Now, the chance of something like that happening, you know, today is slim, but there is definitely a chance. And as hackers gear up and they get better and better at what they're doing, it's just a matter of time until they become effective at it.
I always worry too that on the financial side, if you suddenly wake up in the morning and find out that your bank account is showing zero, your investment account is showing zero, I mean, nothing freaks people out on the streets to God knows what. If something like that were to happen by the thousands, by the millions, and then, then you're talking real bad stuff. I don't want to get into it, aren't you?
Yeah, well, the scary thing about that is, is we hardly exchange in cash anymore today. That's true, you're right. It's all ones and zeros. It's all financial transactions being made via computers and the internet and so on. And to wipe that data out, while it's possible, it's not extremely possible. It can be done, but there's so much backing up of the backup that to erase that data would be very, very difficult to do. But again, you know, as the criminals evolve, you know, there's no telling what they can do. But we certainly need to beef up our systems as we become— As we become more interdependent on the exchange of information, on remotely accessing data, it opens the door to more opportunities for criminals to do their dirty deed.
All right. Duly noted. Robert Siciliano, thank you very much in Boston.
