Cyber Attack and Disruption

As the technologies of our world becomes increasingly reliant on the internet, the consequence of the digital system failing becomes more and more severe. While there are many ways to perform cyber disruption on the city of Seattle, such as physical altercations, EMP, or other indirect effects, the most worrying is the threat of a deliberate cyber attack. Internet crimes have cost victims in the state of Washington millions of dollars in 2016, and the sophistication of such crimes becomes more and more elaborate.

There exists many exploits of digital systems that can have negative impact, such as denial-of-service attacks, malware, phishing, etc., and the actors behind these attacks range from small hacktivists to state actors, with the impact of such attacks increasing the larger a group is. It’s not just enough to look at the form of the attack though.

Attacks can occur on system ranging from personal devices like PC’s, phones, and smart devices to industrial control systems, such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, all coming with their own vulnerabilities. SCADA systems can sprawl a wide variety of functions, such as power and utility distributions in cities. These systems are usually vulnerable to attacks due to age and difficulty in patching them, and disruptions in such systems can cause mass disruption in the operations of a city. Systems that aren’t connected to the internet are still vulnerable to cyber attacks, and cyber attacks on such systems have been on the rise.

As more devices of all functions begin to be designed for the internet in the interests of efficiency, the overall vulnerability of personal and essential systems will be far more open, and could cause massive unrest for populations. It is essential for cities, especially growing ones that utilize smart devices for urban developments, to learn how to deal with hacking attempts.