There is no doubt that the year 2020 was a full year at the level of cybersecurity, so that that year witnesses abundant opportunities, unprecedented risks and several protectionist mechanisms..There is also no doubt that the Corona virus has changed a lot from the map of cybersecurity, its mechanisms and tools along with other promthatent changes and features, but that return he paid electronic services forever, foremost of which is work and distance education, e -commerce, and so on.This trend is unlikely to be reflected or bounced even with the limitations of the potential virus, and it is also unlikely that thatdividual, bilateral or collective efforts will contribute at least that the short term to confront the cyber challenges that the whole world witnessed that 2020.
Puritant risks
The year 2020 witnessed a number of unprecedented cyber challenges at the quantitative and qualitative levels, which are the challenges and risks that can be summed up that the followthatg pothatts:
1- The growthatg tradthatg that user data: Information was available about the “Muslim Pro” application that sold user data to the American army and the leadership of special operations that particular, which resulted that its use that American liquidation around the world.The Spotify Voice broadcast service also warned its users agathatst leakthatg some user recordthatg data (such as: email addresses, passwords, sex, and birth dates) for external parties due to a gap that the program.One of the pirates also managed to sell passwords to hundreds of executives around the world, for one of the pirate forums known as (Exploit.that.) At prices ranging between $ 100 and 1500 dollars.On the other hand, in October 2020, Google removed two applications of the famous "Android" applications from the game store due to the collection of sensitive user data.
2- The United States played the role of the global policeman: The United States imposed sanctions on the Iranian cybersecurity group, 45 individuals linked to it, etc., and the sanctions extended to "Hezbollah" as well.The United States has justified the sanctions imposed on the global threat imposed by Iran in terms of cybersecurity and human rights, which means that the Iranian threat is not only an American threat, but also a global threat, which in turn reflects that the United States plays the role of the "global cyberspace" in the jazzExpression.
مقالات ذات صلة3- Hacking medical institutions: While health institutions mobilized all their possible efforts to confront the Corona virus, the World Health Organization and a number of hospitals and medical institutions have been subjected to piracy, penetration and cyber attacks in search of information related to treatments, tests and vaccines of the virus..Piracy mechanisms have multiplied to include: Pirates and infiltrators claim that they are officials of the World Health Organization, and the provision of fraudulent websites are anti -virus equipment, and the creation of fake websites and e -mail using the World Health Organization logo and ministries of health in national governments.Not to mention the targeting of doctors and workers in health institutions through fake electronic messages, some of which carry harmful programs (fraudulent), and targeting private and government hospital systems with ransom attacks.
4- Causing human deaths: September 2020 witnessed the first human death due to the ransom attack;The attack caused the failure of information technology systems at the German University of Dusseldorf Hospital, which caused the death of a woman after she was transferred to another city 20 miles to receive treatment, and after the hospital was unable to receive any emergency cases. وقد أفادت بعض التقارير بأن ذلك الهجوم لم يكن يستهدف المستشفى نفسها، وإنما جامعة “هاينريش هاينه” (Hethatrich Hethate)التي كانت مخاطبةً بتقديم الفدية.
5- Increased cyber attacks: In the fall of 2020, infiltrators were able to penetrate the internal system of the Finnish Parliament, and they reached the email accounts of some of its members.The United States was also subjected to a cyber attack, which is the worst in its history after the penetration included several government agencies..The phones of dozens of journalists were also selected in July and August 2020 using the spy program "Begasos"."Avast" revealed that 3 million people around the world were injured by harmful programs.European club Manchester United revealed a penetration of an impact on its internal systems.The infiltrators supported by the Iranian government targeted more than 100 prominent figures who were likely to attend the G20 summit in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Besides, the website of US President Donald Trump was partially hacked in a fraud to collect encrypted currencies..The United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) also confirmed its exposure to an advanced security breach against its information systems..The Norwegian parliament also fell victim to a cyber attack announced in August 2020, a attack that targeted the private internal email system.The US government also warned against the exploitation of North Korea pirates for international banks to make financial transfers.The American "Intel" chips manufacturing in a security breach after the theft of 20 GB of its internal documents.
6- Increased targeting of the countries of the Middle East: The Software Software (Thanos) has targeted several government institutions in the Middle East and North Africa region in July 2020, in a prominent example of the employment of data surveying tools in launching mysterious cyber attacks.The pirates known as (Maleraat) also used fraudulent hunting messages related to the Middle East to spy on a number of prominent government officials in the Palestinian territories, the UAE and Turkey.
7- The steady development in ransom software: Microsoft has already warned of modern strains of harmful programs (Adrozek) that target users and steal their data.And along with this, warnings of malware attacks known as "Emotette", especially in Japan and New Zealand.On the other hand, the "Garmin" company was forced to close the communication centers, some websites and other services after the coded ransom attack, its internal network..The Japanese multinational company "Canon" also suffered a ransom attack, along with Amazon in February 2020.
Abundant opportunities
In an anti -risk direction, there are many opportunities related to cybersecurity, as follows:
1- Intensifying remote work: against the background of the Korona pandem.A number of factors contributed to this, led by: digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things.The steady development in communications and information technology has enabled various institutions of interaction and communication through social media, some mobile applications, audio and visual conferences, and files, to ensure continuous communication with workers, exchange information, receive orders, etc..Governments and companies went to hold visual meetings with high accuracy, in a manner that allows hundreds of people, and the content is recorded.Not to mention the possibility of communication through cloud services, in order to fulfill the requirements of the business environment, and enabled to follow up the workflow from a distance.
2- The increasing dependence on the Zoom application: against the background of the Korona and quarantine's pandemic, the various institutions and companies tended to adopt new practices to promote work from remoteness, in light of successive changes that affected the structure of business and how it continues in the optimal manner.In light of the work and study from a distance, the growing dependence on free applications, and the need of institutions and individuals to organize virtual meetings;Increased dependence on a number of new applications;Among them has increased the fame of the "Zoom" application for video and meetings.In this context, the application has become one of the most popular and used applications in recent times.
3- Pushing technical solutions to combat the Corona virus: With its technical solutions, it pushed the front lines to face the Corona virus, to combine government efforts with the private sector and various innovators, to be manifested in a number of innovative robots, newly created initiatives, electronic applications, and so on.It is the efforts that contributed to its entirety to combating and encircling the Corona virus and reducing the chances of infection on the one hand, unleashing the efforts of innovators and human cadres and activating smart technological technologies on the other hand.
4- Increasing Internet users around the world: In January 2020, the total number of Internet users reached about 4.5 billion users (which constitutes about 59% of the total population of the world), and has been used more than 3.8 billion people social media by 49%.This has consequently consequently increasing the number and performance of individual smart devices, and the use of home internet, especially in times.
5- Azure's cloud platform offering in space: Microsoft cooperated with the company "SpaceX" to expand its cloud computing platform and directed to the space industry, and linking the cloud computing platform (AZURE) to the "SpaceX" satellite network that revolves around the Earth at the levelsLow, which gives the company an advantage in its battle against Amazon.Invidia also established a new type of data chips in the face of "Intel", which can pay artificial intelligence efforts, discover infiltrators, and review the network traffic movement.
Intensify protection efforts
In the past year, efforts aimed at protecting various users, whether individuals, companies or countries, are from the escalating cybersecurity, and to enhance the aforementioned opportunities, which are efforts that can be identified, the most prominent in the following points:
1- Closing the VPN service by Al-Urbol: Urbol and the Federal Investigation Office closed the VPN known as (Safe-Inet) for the first time due to its increasing use by hackers and Internet criminals, as it allows hiding real users ’sites, which enables it to surround their identityWith completely unknown, and preventing the ability of the supervisory security services to follow them.This is due to or another to the efforts of the security services that concluded to use these networks to facilitate the launch of ransom attacks on the one hand, and to spy on nearly 250 companies around the world on the other hand..
2- Intensifying data protection efforts: Apple, for example, issued a guide entitled "Access to the device and data when personal safety is in danger".It is the evidence that primarily aimed to verify the ability of others to access user data or their devices.This guide also aimed to explain the options of safety and risks available, and to offer protection, up to technology security..Hence, the guide included several sections on comprehensive privacy settings, along with a series of review lists that determine the steps that must be followed to stop the no and maintain the privacy of user sites.
3- Fighting ransom software: Efforts aimed at addressing the threats of these software, which translated himself in the efforts of dozens of technological companies, led by the companies “Microsoft” and “McAfi” in the form of a new alliance called Ransomware Task Force in order to consider technical solutionsAvailable that can be employed in the face of ransom attacks, in partnership with a large number of experts, companies and industries who are precisely determined by potential gaps and ways to confront them, up to common mechanisms that all members can be employed if they are attacked.
4- Maintaining the privacy of users: Google and Apple prohibited the technology of (X-Mode Social) to track and sell site data, by asking the developers to remove the software instructions for the company's technology from applications;This technology depends on giving developers a symbol to put it in applications to track user sites and send them to the company to sell them.In this context, Apple granted the developers two weeks to remove the symbol, for one week granted by "Google" to developers..
5- Tightening controls on spyware: The European Parliament has taken steps to limit the export of monitoring technologies, especially spyware outside the European Union, through: Including licensing criteria that more emphasize human rights, reporting the exports of member states, and so on.What paved the way for new rules for selling dual -use technologies that might be misunderstood in illegal ways.In parallel, the Netherlands imposed strict rules to combat espionage through new security regulations for telecommunications service providers..The European Court of Justice also ruled that member states cannot collect collective data on citizens via mobile phones or the Internet, and this is excluded from cases that pose a threat to the national security of the countries.."Google" also imposed an official ban on spy applications, which track users' movements, calls and messages.
6- Global initiatives to protect data security: In September 2020, China has advanced an initiative to develop global standards for data protection, enhance pluralism, prevent the creation of back doors in its products that may enable illegal data to obtain data, respect for sovereignty and jurisdiction, and respect the rights of other countries in managing their dataAnd preventing monitoring other countries or obtaining foreign citizens ’information through illegal methods.This aims in its entirety to protect the rules of global data security and respect the interests of other countries on the basis of global.
7- Development of national cyber armies: Britain unveiled the latest offensive unit from its cyber units known as the "National Cyber Force" (National Cyber Force).It is a unit belonging to the British Intelligence Agency and the Ministry of Defense, and its work has begun in secret since April 2020 with several hundreds of infiltrators stationed in the city of Shaltenham next to other military sites.Its primary goal is to disrupt the communications of everyone who represents a threat to the United Kingdom.
In conclusion, in 2020, the increasing risk of cyber threats to affect government agencies, nuclear reactors, global organizations and health institutions, and it targets individuals, companies, small, medium and major countries without discrimination, and the development of ransom software, hacking, piracy, data trafficking and selling them..Despite the multiplicity of available opportunities on the one hand, and the efforts of international protection on the other hand, the international conflict that already struggling with user data remains the most intense, especially after user data has become the most important and most prominent strategic commodity, and even the twenty -first century oil..