Current Homeland Security Issue Term Paper Assignment (Term Paper Sample)

Cyber WarfareAuthor’s Name:University Name:Course:Date:Technological advancements have steadily increased the computational inventions in the computing industry. New sophisticated ways of doing distinct activities have been brought up by today’s high tech innovations. As a result, the power manifested by the field of computing has continuously increased hence creating new favorable avenues for automation of numerous tasks in pursuit of making work easier for man. These tasks include communication, production, business transactions, marketing and manufacturing. Computer technology is utilized to make programs which are embedded within machinery in order to carry out heavy duty tasks with extreme automation and efficiency. This is made possible by the integration of computational concepts with robotics technology which is also highly reliant on computer programming. The internet has metamorphosed the entire globe to seemingly look like one community living very close to each other in terms of communication CITATION Lee16 \l 1033 (Lee, 2016). The internet is a noticeable and compulsory contributing factor, alongside digital communication and networking technology, to creation of the cyberspace. Cyberspace is basically the realm within which people communicate over extremely expansive geographical distances in split time CITATION Wil17 \l 1033 (Gibson, 2017). Herein, people are able to send each other images, text emails, large size or small size files, videos and audios. Moreover, cyberspace allows computers to transact information to each other over wide distances. This is made possible by the internal architectural design of the cyberspace which assumes a virtual world in which objects can coexist and ready to be fetched by computers. For example, information residing in the internet is said to exist in the cyberspace which is itself intangible and virtually implemented. Due to the fact that people all over the world rely so much on the internet in order to conduct business ventures and communicate with the rest of the globe for other monetary transactions, cyberspace is a rich hub for hacker activities. Consequently, cybercrime has for long being a major concern for many cyber security teams who aim at stopping internet based thefts or system breaches in organizations or institutions which often lead to loss of personal property and monetary assets. Hackers are often driven by the urge of infiltrating classified data and information from the highly secured company repositories. This activities are particularly propelled and funded by competitors who aim at attaining a larger market share in the sales of a certain product as well as obtain the largest customer base. Cybercrime therefore has adversely affected the profitability and expansiveness of many businesses in the U.S.A. as well as other countries across the world. Homeland Security is an organization that focuses at protecting the U.S.A. citizens from cyber-crimes CITATION www1712 \l 1033 (, 2017). Databases servers and repositories are the main focus of attack and unauthorized intrusion by hackers. This is because they contain crucial data and information related to the business’s production methods as well as competitive strategies. Once hackers access the repositories, they collect the data and sell it to interested competitors who would like to make better products with unsurpassed quality since they will have the knowhow of how well to modify their approaches of production and/or product design. On an international domain, cybercrimes take a more extensive and more dangerous routine which incorporates the launch of attacks from other countries in order to destroy government owned information networks. This is known as cyber warfare. According to Richard A. Clarke, cyber warfare refers to secretive activities conducted by a certain group, nation or state to intrude into another country’s computer networks or information systems for the purpose of causing large scale destruction or theft of highly sensitive information CITATION Cla10 \l 1033 (Clarke, 2010). Furthermore, cyber warfare might incorporate a widespread attack of a particular nation’s systems by non-governmental organizations such as political parties, extremists or NGOs (non-governmental organizations). These groups which commit cybercrimes against the nation’s government are often interested in debasing the country’s intelligence system as well as avenge certain actions by the authorities. These actions include enactment of certain laws which oppress a particular group of people, unwanted amendments or unjudicial prosecutions. In fact, politically oriented cyber warfare incorporates the notion of searching for a higher power or more authority over a certain population proportion. Herein, a political party might be interested in destroying or stealing valuable information from its adversaries in pursuit of paralyzing their positive development in terms of garnering more followers within a certain region or community. In case the cyber-attack is successful, the victim’s plans to positively progress its campaigns are deteriorated whereas the attacker utilizes the stolen information to perk up its campaigning strategies. More so, it enjoys conducting its campaigns in a less competitive race due to the fact that its victims are rendered powerless without their data or better strategies. In addition, influential political leaders and/or parties might utilize cyber warfare to swindle elections results. This is done by launching cyber based hacks on database servers or machines which are utilized to count and store election results. Since elections are a very important activity in the U.S.A., the Homeland Security deems this form of elections’ rigging as a serious crime that must be condemned strongly. Other countries which oppose the U.S.A. might launch cyber-attacks in order to change the outcome of elections so that a weak, less intelligent or lenient leader might lead the country so that they can defeat U.S.A. in terms of economic dominance and overall power or authority over the entire world. Due to the level of criticality and amount of funds needed to launch undetectable and highly potentially successful attacks on the U.S.A. government, a great degree of expertise and technological advancements are adopted in the design of these attacks. Therefore, the U.S. government prioritizes cyber security. This is evidenced by the steady and hefty funding invested in further development and better training of Homeland Security personnel. Moreover, the government is always interested in improving the tactical force innovativeness by creating more opportunities to learn and practice new technology on defending cyberspace based attacks more proactively. Homeland Security is deeply interested in buttressing its personnel and experts. For instance, it exposes them to utilizing new technology and encourages them to focus on a complete masterly of source codes and scripts that are essential in detecting and deterring harmful aftermaths of cyber hacks. Also, Homeland Security is always vigilant of learning new tricks that might be used by potential attackers. This is done by studying the nature and structure of captured attacks regardless of how insignificant they may seem. The United States of America has encountered many threats from other countries even before it gained independence about four centuries ago. It has therefore learnt a lot of tactics to curb attempts by its opponents. The U.S.A. has learnt how to be always ready for any form of attack. In fact, it has learnt that the best weapon against its enemies is improvising the enemies’ weapons to yield a more sophisticated and lethal weapon than theirs. For this reason, it aspires to be in the forefront in terms of military strategizing and cyber defense. For instance, Russia has been a constant threat to U.S.A. since the conflict of communism versus democracy. Currently, Russia has been aiming at creating computer programs that are aimed at attacking the U.S. government’s top classified information CITATION www168 \l 1033 (, 2016). Allegedly, Russia is aspiring to conquer U.S.A. in terms of power superiority and be termed as the world’s supper power. Therefore, U.S.A.’s Homeland Security department has been continuously inventing more complex means of buttressing its cyber defense mechanisms against Russia’s cyber warfare threats. Also, the former has declared cyber warfare as a bigger threat compared to ground or physical terrorism conspiracies. The issue arising from the topic of cyber warfare is that Homeland Security is bombarded with numerous responsibilities arising from the increased number of specialized cyber-attacks. Technology is advancing at a very high rate which is paving way for creation of more complex cyber warfare tactics. Therefore, Homeland Security is expected to exhibit unwavering determination and focus on carrying out more in-depth research on ways of increasing the technological competence or efficiency of defense mechanisms meant to curb these attacks. Terrorism has been a great challenge that has brought immense destruction of property and loss of many lives. Cyber warfare is also adopted by terrorists to effectually improve their strategies and mannerism of executing attacks. Most prevalently, terrorists utilize viruses and malicious codes to hack into governmental agencies and military based networks in order to garner high level inte...