The expansion of internet is attracting thug masters into this dynamic world. Everybody is convinced about the capability of the bad industry after the night dance of WannaCry virus across internet domains last month. The malware was making users hostages and blackmailing them to prevent routine digital activities.
WannaCry attacked systems running on Windows and demanded ransoms in bitcoin to leave the victim. Several institutions including FexEx and Britain’s National Health Service were tottered digitally. Cyber security pundits rate Wannacry as an advanced level ransomware. They predict that more destructive and pinching raids can be expected from cyber criminals in future.
The idea of ransomware is the best monetization model for the digital underworld. At the same time, the latest episode shows that the ransomware industry has attained technological transformation.
As the internet’s horizon widens, business engagement deepens, the commitment and hard work of cyber-attackers may also go up. But there is no clarity about who will insulate the digital world from the next cyber-attack wave.
Despite the global concern about the security of digital engagements, the latest maneuvering by cybercriminals exposed one perennial weakness of the governments and other regulators. It is that the official machinery who have the mandate to check the cyber-attacks are looking stranded and almost clueless.
More than anything else, there is hardly any worthful global coordination against these pirates. Countries are thinking in isolation and acting on divided way. For curing such a trans global disease, which have no national boundaries, countries should think and act together to make coordinated moves.
As a beginning, the official world should detach from own lovely hacker communities who are potential ransomware manufactures themselves. It is feared that several governments are promoting and protecting hacking startups, expecting that these can be used as weapons of information warfare against rivals. A success against cross national cyber criminals like ransomwares will be successful only if governments becomes protectors of cybersecurity.
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