Image: fieldsy.org via Flickr
The controversy revolving around international media site Wikileaks is escalating quickly as supporters sent a shot across the bow to Mastercard, successfully taking down the credit card company’s website. The cyber attack was a direct retaliation of the credit card company refusing to process donations to Wikileaks. However, Mastercard isn’t alone. The “hacktivists,” operating under the group label “Anonymous,” also targeted transaction processing site Paypal just a few days prior for the same reasons.
While these attacks may only last for a few days or even hours, the financial and economic ramifications are much more pronounced for these companies, which are often times some of the largest corporations in the world. Consumers and taxpayers may not realize it, but beneath the surface, the rising threat of cyber attacks, computer viruses and identity fraud is costing them billions.
Wikileaks vs. Mastercard
Wikileaks is an international internet news site that publishes classified documents and “leaks” provided by anonymous submissions. Founded in 2006, the site quickly gained notoriety but was embroiled in a new form of controversy when founder and editor in chief Julian Assange was accused of raping two women in Sweden.
This incident seemed to help spark a domino effect of financial institutions cutting ties to the online publication. Companies like Paypal, Mastercard and Visa no longer process monetary contributions or transactions to Wikileaks, so supporters with some of the most popular credit cards can’t send money to the site.
This subsequently angered supporters, who then responded with a series of organized cyber attacks under the campaign name, “Operation Payback.” The basic concept is hackers overload a website until it can no longer function due to overcapacity.
Cost of Hackers and Cyber Attacks
While Operation Payback and the attack on Mastercard and Paypal websites are the most recent examples in headlines, the world of cyber warfare has rapidly evolved into a significant subsection of the economy and national infrastructure. In fact, the global industry for information security is expected to be worth more than $125 billion by 2015.
The industry is on fire mainly because the threat is very real and it’s growing. It’s estimated that the worldwide economy loses about $86 billion a year because of these internet attacks or viruses.
On average, corporations lose over $6 million a day when their sites are down because of a cyber attack–but viruses go beyond websites, as they can hack and harm databases and affect operations.
The U.S. government itself is expected to spend about $13.3 billion by 2015 just on information security alone. Modern military warfare and national defense strategies are rapidly evolving to into the cyber arena.
The growing requirements of IT security to protect against malware viruses, cyber attack campaigns and information theft creates higher operational costs for governments and corporations, who then have to pass it on to taxpayers and consumers to make up for it.
Direct Impact on Consumers
While most consumers don’t notice a direct impact beyond just a minor inconvenience, hacker activity does cost them. In fact, identity fraud alone is one area that directly costs consumers, to the tune of over $54 billion a year actually.
Here are some basic tips that could actually go a long way to helping you out:
- Protect your social security number.
- Monitor your credit reports for identity theft and fraud.
- Be cautious about giving your information online.
- Make sure online vendors and merchants protect your information.
- Check whether your information is compromised if your vendor or bank is a victim of a cyber attack.
It might be hard to wrap your mind around such high figures and numbers, but just understand that internet security is big business and it affects your life more than you think. It’s important to make sure that you and your information is protected.
