Cyberterrorism

Recently there has been much discussion on all different types of cyberattacks. The January suicide of a 16 year old girl over cyberbullying made the world look at the internet much more seriously. The fact that one of the students involved in the incident had the nerve to post "accomplished" on the victims Facebook wall after the news of her suicide, shows just how disconnected people feel from their actions on the internet. A recent article in the New York Times said that the website Google was the victim of a cyberattack of their own. Apparently the hackers gained access to all of Googles password systems which contains users personal information such as their email activity. A source says that with one MSN instant message sent to one of the operators of Google, contained a "poisoned link" disguised as an advertisement. With one click by that operator, somehow all of those important Google internet files were obtained by an outside source.

This is the link to the article if you would like to read it. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/20google.html?scp=2&sq=google&st=cse

There have been many more examples of cyberattacks affecting different parties around the world. Whether one person is being victimized or one of the most successful companies on the internet, everyone is at risk of being harmed. It is extremely scary to think that there is such a thing as online criminals that have the ability of remaining unknown to the outside world. The fact that you could be fooled or hurt by someone on the other side of the world or right down your street through the internet without ever knowing is a current issue our generation has to deal with.