HELLO, NERO?--Reporters in the
length and breadth of their careers acquire useful sources of information. A human is called a contact. During a social event mid summer I asked one
of my contacts, a well-placed top executive in management of this nation’s key
defense contractors, what he thought of the “just happened” cyber attack on JP
Morgan Chase that we later learned compromised more than 83 million households.
When
asked about the seriousness and possible fallout of the cyber attack on one of
Wall Street’s top institutions, my contact shrugged. “Tip of the iceberg,” he said and followed up
with “the next 9-11 to hit this country—when it happens--will be a debilitating
cyber attack on our economy...”
Over the weekend, the New York Times called
the JP Morgan cyber attack “... one of the most serious computer intrusions
into an American corporation.” If that
wasn’t bad enough, the NYT added: “But it could have been much worse.”
My
contact agreed, “papers are flying and desks are shuffling all over
Washington. It got our attention.”
As
well they should.
NYTimes reporters Matthew
Goldstein, Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger reported in early October: “The
hackers are thought to be operating from Russia and appear to have at least
loose connections with officials of the Russian government, the people briefed
on the matter said.
“It
is unclear whether the other intrusions, at banks and brokerage firms, were as
deep as the one that JPMorgan disclosed on Thursday. The identities of the
other institutions could not be immediately learned.
“The
breadth of the attacks — and the lack of clarity about whether it was an effort
to steal from accounts or to demonstrate that the hackers could penetrate even
the best-protected American financial institutions — has left Washington
intelligence officials and policy makers far more concerned than they have let
on publicly. Some American officials speculate that the breach was intended to
send a message to Wall Street and the United States about the vulnerability of
the digital network of one of the world’s most important banking institutions,”
said the NY Times reporters.
One
gets the feeling that the recent JP Morgan attack was akin to the first attack
on the World Trade Center in 1993. That
was a big warning. One can only hope
Washington intelligence cadres led by U.S. Treasury, the Secret Service and
other intelligence agencies can stop the next big attack.
Given
the Secret Service’s recent turmoil, I, as one citizen am terrified that our
cyber sleuths have been handed the ball way too late.
And,
it isn’t comforting when earlier this summer Jacob J. Lew asked Congress to
pass legislation to improve information sharing process between the times
corporations are hacked and the time the Government agencies hear about it.
Mr.
Lew is this nation’s Treasury Secretary.
Given
our Congress can only pass gas, good luck Mr. Lew and Gods of choice help the
rest of us. –Opinion by Thomas Shess,
Editor of Pillar to Post Blog
PS:
Hmmm. Makes one wonder if indeed Russia is behind the JP Morgan cyber attack
that they might have employed a certain whistleblower exiled there. Revenge is a bitch.
No comments:
Post a Comment