Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
regions, the use of trusted couriers to hand-carry extremely sensitive
materials is a more secure means of transferring data.
COMPUTER SECURITY AND HACKING
Everyone is aware of the dangers of loss of sensitive information by com-
puter hackers able to surreptitiously gain access to your company's data-
base. Hackers have been able to penetrate virtually every computer system
on the planet. Even teenage hackers have been able to penetrate highly
classified and supposedly secure systems, such as the system maintained
by the Pentagon. Microsoft itself has been hacked on several occasions.
Companies and government institutions, tired of this embarrassing phe-
nomenon, have at times hired former hackers to create security systems
for them.
The entire business and financial world is automated. The use of
computer technology has rapidly become the backbone of how business
is done. Computer systems have made the storage and flow of informa-
tion move at incredible speeds. They also have opened up a new front in
the war on terrorism. As we have seen, terror groups have without ques-
tion shifted their targeting priorities to the economic infrastructure of
the United States and other Western nations. Economic disruption, they
believe, has a far greater impact on the policies of a nation than attacks
on traditional military targets. Thus far, Al Qaeda and their ilk have used
bombs, guns, and fully fueled jet aircraft to effect these attacks. It is only
a matter of time before terrorists acquire the technical sophistication to
achieve the same results through massive attacks on the computer systems
that control our economy. Of even greater concern is the potential of a
cyberattack made in conjunction with a conventional attack. For example,
vital services such as electric power generation and communications sys-
tems could be disrupted electronically through a cyberterror strike. If this
were done at the same time as a massive bombing attack or the dispersal
of biological, nuclear, or chemical materials, the combined effects would
be catastrophic. Governments all over the world have become greatly con-
cerned over this looming battleground and have mandated that business
institutions, particularly those involved in providing essential services,
take immediate action to protect themselves against this new threat. The
U.S. government has even begun conducting “war games” in conjunction
with private industry to simulate a coordinated attack on the country's
