Information Warfare and Cyberterrorism: Darkode, Mafiaboy, and Shamoon 2012 Attacks

Information Warfare and Cyberterrorism
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Information Warfare and Cyberterrorism Introduction In recent years, the media, security experts, politicians, and the IT industry have all been drawn to the issue of cyberterrorism. Media personnel, legislators, and specialists from various areas have delved into a discourse in which adept cyberterrorists use computers to hack into military, air traffic control, or dam systems (USIP, 2004). This issue creates havoc, jeopardizes a large population, and threatens national security. Cyberterrorism attacks into government agencies and commercial computer networks have crippled developed countries’ financial, infrastructure, services, and military sectors, causing significant concern. Specific cases, including the Darkode Attack, the Mafiaboy, and Shamoon 2012 Attack, demonstrate the gravity of these cyber-attack events. The Darkode Attack In 2015, a cyberterrorist group named Darkode developed a protected trade destination for the globe’s most notorious cyber offenders. The underground world was a highly protected internet forum that was a gathering spot for malware buyers, sellers, and traders. Stolen personal information, credit card data, botnets, compromised server passwords, and software data from over 20 nations were all part of the comprehensive system. It was a hacking situation in which 250-300 Darkode members from various countries gained access to a large amount of data and sold it to people who wanted to manipulate it for commercial use (FBI, 2015). The 20 victim countries include; America, Canada, EU member nations, Nigeria, Columbia, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Australia. They all suffered varying ranges of damages. The Darkode members were the aggressors and adopted a high-volume data atmosphere technique where the vetted members had protected access to sell or buy unauthorized information from banks, software companies, and corporates to each other (FBI, 2015). Regarding the response taken, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed Operation Shrouded Horizon in conjunction with intelligence agencies from affected nations. The operation saw the arrest, search, indictment, and charging of more than 70 Darkode members worldwide (FBI, 2015). The Darkode trade was halted due to the operation’s success in the affected countries. The 2000 “Mafiaboy” DoS Attack A 15-year-old Canadian cyber hacker staged several DoS assaults on specific e-commerce sites, including Amazon, E-Trade, and eBay, on February 7, 2000. This case was the first-ever reported DoS-style cyber-attack. The young hacker was suspected of attacking the e-commerce sites using the online pseudonym Mafiaboy, which crippled the operations of the affected areas (Ritchel, 2000). Numerous other well-known websites were obliged to beef up their security in the face of an intangible and imminent danger. The case was a denial of service attack (DoS), which occurs when a web-based site is rendered inaccessible by a Trojan Horse, usually by continuously sending numerous requests to the websites that clog it up and hinder it from addressing genuine user requests (USIP, 2004). The victims were ...