Telecommunications is an important component of the national infrastructure of a country and plays a major role in national security. The telecommunications industry provides its services to several consumers, industries and government organizations. The infrastructure and the underlying telecommunications are the prominent factors in maintaining the economic and social life . Information technology and telecommunications is the backbone of the economic growth of a country and is a critical resource, which all economic sectors such as finance, transport, health, energy and other sectors rely on. The Business models are built on the smooth functioning of information system and telecommunications, such as the internet .
Cyber attack is a major threat to the telecommunications industry. The attack is internal, external, specific or generic in nature. The consequences of cyber attacks are loss of confidentiality, availability and integrity of valuable information . Cyber attacks are constantly broadening their capabilities to exploit new vulnerabilities. Exploitation of telecommunications networks is the most common impact of cyber attacks. Another issue for the telecommunications organizations is the risk of intrusion via mobile devices. Addressing such concerns requires up to date knowledge about information such as assets, threats and vulnerabilities. A cyber attack can jeopardize services for the public, resulting in serious economic consequences .
Cyber-attacks can result in huge financial loss, interruption of business or services, destruction of the infrastructure or blockage of the vital operations of a country . Cyber-attacks are sometimes aimed to disrupt telecommunications services or infrastructure in alignment with physical attacks. In order to safeguard telecommunications, the operators make use of technology such as intrusion-detection tools, asset-management tools and anti-virus tools that provide security from known threats. However, non-malicious activities turn out to be the greatest risk for the telecommunications sector.
Cyber attacks have a significant impact on the critical infrastructure of a country. The third order and fourth order effects of cyber attacks are a major concern as they impact the public and by causing disruption to the critical infrastructure. A cyber attack that is meant to harm the economy targets computers that operate the critical infrastructure of the civilians and the government agencies . The impact of cyber attacks differs from infrastructure to infrastructure and the nature of the attack. The potential impact of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure is a national security concern. Vulnerabilities in critical infrastructures such as the energy grid, water supply, telecommunications and transportation are a major concern .
The cyber criminals implement their strategies by controlling the critical infrastructure that contains sensitive information by accessing online and cloud environments. While outages caused by cyber attacks create annoying interruptions in the everyday lives of the people, they cause monetary loss to businesses, thus impacting the economy . Cyber attacks have been successful in obtaining customer data and committing fraud transactions, making it a nightmare for customers and businesses to conduct financial transactions. The cyber attacks aim at causing havoc to information technology systems that are an integral part of the public safety, medical and emergency services, traffic control and public works .
If neglected, the critical infrastructure of the country may face an attack at a dangerous scale, resulting in mass casualties and degradation of critical systems of the country that are essential to maintain national security . Though improvements have been made to safeguard the critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, the number of attacks that cause terror and loss of life have not reduced to a high extent till date. In order to prevent massive cyber attacks, the critical infrastructure of the United States requires funding and technical expertise . The government should hold the private sector accountable in order to ensure high standards of cyber security in terms of critical infrastructure.
Works Cited
Amoroso, E. (2012). Cyber Attacks: Protecting National Infrastructure, STUDENT EDITION. Elsevier.
Cyberthreat: Protecting U.S. Information Networks. DIANE Publishing.
