DISCUSSION 8
Answer the following questions in your thread:
What do you see as the number one most pressing issue regarding
homeland security, and why do you say this?
What are your solutions to this issue?
Did this course cause you to change your mind or opinion about
anything related to homeland security? If so, what was it?
Why or why not? Maybe something was reinforced—if so, explain.
What was the most important thing you learned in this course, and
why (an "aha" moment)?
Number one pressing homeland security issue
There are a lot of issues homeland security is facing in today’s world, but the most
pressing I think is cyberterrorism. It’s been mentioned a lot throughout the class discussions as
well. There have been many definitions about what cyberterrorism is, but to sum it,
cyberterrorism incorporates cyberattacks against people’s lives and all electronic infrastructure
that manages national security and crucial infrastructure. Continuing, someone must have the
intention to foster fear and damage to the political sphere. We ought to be careful though,
because sometimes something like someone disrupting the system that is inessential and only
causes inconvenience and financial burden for the company, it is not considered cyberterrorism
(Newsome, 2019).
The same goes for hacktivists, they are not cyberterrorists but rather a radical group that
has a political goal, likes to expose information and weak security systems of corporations, and
is promoting defiance. Their intent is awareness and protest online and not to cause any serious
financial or physical harm to people. One of the most famous hacktivist groups is Anonymous
(Mezei, 2018).
There are many problems when it comes to the fight against cyber terrorism. The basic and
major ones are the easiness of worldwide accessibility of the network and the lack of
surveillance systems in place. Since there are no borders and controls in cyberspace, that
provides an open door to terrorists. Fast-changing technology makes it hard for legislation to
keep up with updating the legal statutes and law and keep control. The existing safety
mechanisms technically do not have the time to change and adapt to the newer and more
sophisticated technology. Therefore, governments are struggling to implement satisfactory legal
control. They still need to be wary of the protection of the digital privacy of users, which
presents a challenge (Arshad Khan, 2018).
People putting their personal information on social networks, viruses, etc. make
cybercrimes even easier to do. The scariest part is that you can purchase all kinds of software
online that contains stolen credit cards information and people’s credentials, and education about
theft and online attacks. All that allows cyberterrorist to conceal their identity easier and crimes
continue to increase (Kirillova et al., 2017).
We must take cyber threats seriously, especially since United States networks of military,
public and private sectors are all linked and penetrating one could lead to be able to take control
all. Having control over water infrastructure, electrical power grid, nuclear plants or any of the
critical infrastructure could lead to the destruction of a nation (Gunzel, 2017).
Solutions
The main solution to cybercrime is more network security for all sectors. The only
problem with that is that we cannot force private sectors to invest money in that. What we can do
is to not contract with them if their security systems are not in regulations with whatever we set
them to be.
Another possible solution would be the limitations to the Internet protocol (IP) addresses,
meaning that IPs from other countries would not be able to access networks in the U.S. For
example, if we are aware that most cyberattacks come from Russian IP addresses we could put in
the security control to forbid access to anyone whose IP address is connected to that location.
The problem that we could potentially encounter here is that good hackers can change their IP
address to whichever location they want.
Public and employee awareness can play a major role in protecting the public and
individuals from cyberattacks. Krishan focused on solutions for corporations and proposed better
and more thorough data encryption, employee training, so they know what to look for and be
careful about, and an establishment of an incident response team. The incident response team’s
job is to respond to the attack as quickly as possible and contain it. The team consists of analysts,
researchers, and incident response managers. The data they gather can potentially help them to
prevent future attacks and that can save the company a lot of resources (2018).
Course impact and most important thing learned in the course
My view of homeland security has expanded tremendously. As discussed in the first discussion, I
was not aware, well I never really looked deep into the structure of homeland security and that
opened my horizons. Here the Proverb 28:26 fits right in: “If you think you know it all, you’re a
fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others” (MSG, Bible Gateway, n.d.).
References
Arshad Khan, E. (2018). The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016: An Analysis. LUMS
Law Journal, 5, 117-126
Gunzel, J. A. (2017). Tackling the Cyber Threat: The Impact of the Dod’s “Network Penetration
Reporting and Contracting for Cloud Services” Rule on Dod Contractor Cybersecurity.
Public Contract Law Journal, 46(3), 687-712).
Kirillova, E., Kurbanpv, R., Svechnikova, N., ZulFugarzade, T., & Zenin, S. (2017). Problems of
fighting crimes on the internet. Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics
(JARLE), 8(3), 849-856.
Krishan, R. (2018). Corporate Solutions to Minimize Expenses from Cyber Security Attacks in
the United States. Journal of Internet Law, 21(11), 16-19.
Mezei, K. (2018). Cyberterrorism and the terrorist use of the internet. Law Series of the Annals
of the West University of Timisoara, 2018(2), 21-34.
Newsome, E. (2019). Sorting solutions: The fix to the international legal framework on
cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism is decision three, not magical bullet. Rutgers Journal of
Law and Public Policy, 17(1), 82-140.
Proverbs 28:26 MSG, Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Www.biblegateway.com. Retrieved November 7,
2022, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?
search=Proverbs+28%3A26&version=MSG
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