The United States National Security Agency is considered as the most sophisticated group of security hackers all over the globe. However, a lot of people are arguing in this point. But we cannot deny the fact that without the National Security Agency which drives the defense and operation of the Military’s World information center, and US CERT, attacks on the vital infrastructures of the Untied States would be successful to some extent. We might be living like the dark ages right now because telephone lines would be inoperable s well as the internet. Food would be a primary dilemma for all of us because it wouldn’t be delivered to your supermarket. The Obama administration is on the verge of finishing an internal cyber-protection review. They are bound to announce the plans for the review and spill the one who’s going to take the charge. It’s been reported in the New York Times lately that the National Security Agency wants to handle the task, but this is raising controversy against some private sectors and civil groups who fear that the spy agency would have too much power.
Meanwhile, in order to reconcile threats against our nation and any other global type of communication for criminal terrorists and hackers, those who will be the head of the cyber-security should have unlimited access to all the networks. This is probably a legal issue that any government sector with strong power might have the tendency to overstep the citizen’s rights. However, in the angle of security overview, there are really bad people out there who would do everything they can for you to be dead. To give you a concrete example of how power is used for positive outcome, Wired.com’s Kevin Poulsen reports on an FBI-developed spyware program known as ‘CIPAV” or the Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier, which has been utilized to investigate terrorists and extortion plots and plans.
This is the new James Bond or the Transporter blockbuster movie that makes for a breath taking storyline. The capability of CIPAV reports and notes a computer’s IP address, open ports, MA address, the type of operating system, the serial number and version, and the default internet browser and its version as well as the last visited URL. This is just equal to the crime scene investigator having fresh sample of evidence particularly blood for the fatality and the person behind it as well as the full video of the crime. The FBI steals the CIPAV onto target’s machine just like any other serious hacker can execute, with the use of a conventional web browser.
Hey are also utilizing that same type of hacker scheme that the criminals use, a means of scamming their target into clicking a particular link by installing the spyware. The only difference in terms of the process that any illegal hacker would is they are legal. An illegal hacker will hack Joe’s page at Facebook and posted a nasty subject in his private bulletin getting him to click it. On the other hand, the FBI was trying to plot an attack with a sexual pervert that have been stalking and threatening the life of a teenage girl he would meet just for sex. It would seem that the man’s IP address will be anonymous all over the globe which results in impossibility to track him. Pinning the subject who installed the CIPAV will be easier for the hunter. A lot of other cases were cited in different articles, including an undercover agent dealing with a subject known as “weapon if mass destruction” a threat for anthrax, who converse with the suspect through hotmail, and ask approval from Washington to Utilize CIPAV in locating the computer of the suspect.
In a broader sense, criminal and terrorists are just a fragment or piece when it comes to scare; Big Brother is Scarier.