The Next Terror Attack Could Be Launched Through Your Home Computer (AUDIO)
Listen to David Matthau's report
The world is certainly a crazy, dangerous place these days, but what's the biggest threat we're facing?
Several experts from a number of different fields discussed the question during a conference at Rutgers University on Emerging Threats in the 21st Century.
Issues explored included terrorism, public health, natural disasters and the growing threat of cyber-attacks.
Dr. Pano Yannakogeorgos, the Senior Program Coordinator for the Rutgers Center for Emerging Threats says at this point we're not too worried about Al Qaeda launching a cyber-attack, "what's a greater threat is information warriors from foreign governments infiltrating our information systems here, with zero-day vulnerabilities, or other malicious software."
He says this might include "Russian or Chinese- who have teams of hackers that have the resources of their states backing their efforts in finding our vulnerabilities in our information systems… our biggest worry would be they could have planted bugs or Trojan horses into our systems, but we wouldn't know about it until a potential conflict actually breaks out."
Dr. Yannakogeorgos adds this is not just a government problem.
"If individuals don't keep their information systems secure" he says, "other governments could use your own personal computer for example, to launch attacks against the U.S. government…using bot-nets…think of it as a Trojan horse - it allows the attacker to enter in through a back door into your system, and then pretty much use your computer in any way which they'd like - to send spam, or to launch a cyber-attack."
His advice?
"Keep your systems safe" he says, "by patching them, and remaining alert."
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