For the past seven years, I have tracked and traced cyberattacks on my clients and their databases back to their sources, and if they met certain criteria, added them to my firewalls. I have collected over 700,000,000 IPs in the form of 40,000 CIDRs, with some individual IPs when blocking the CIDR wasn't practical. This forms the core of my Aegis Defender Pro software and firewall updating system.
Most people look at cyberattacks at a micro-level, detecting individual attacks on their own systems and dealing with them locally. Some of these attacks are newsworthy and eventually reach the public through the media, but 90% are unreported, covered up, or worse, have yet to be detected at all. Over the last couple of years, I've seen a troubling pattern that points to a coming cyber-war on a global scale. I believe this war is imminent, and the U.S. Government is woefully unprepared for it.
To understand the growth of the cyber threat, it's important for the reader to be able to imagine a map of the world, with billions of little lines joining blue dots of light. These lights are computers and servers that are on the Internet, communicating with each other over the lines from point to point, all at the speed of light. As you watch this beautiful map, one of the lights goes red. Small red lines spread out, very localized at first, then suddenly, a red line shoots out to a city on the other side of the world. More red dots appear across the map, growing slowly at first, then faster at a geometric rate. Fast forward with time lapse and you see red lines growing everywhere, turning blue lights to red more and more until there are only pockets of blue; and one by one they are turning red.
This is a combination of the spreading of malware, websites being compromised, email servers falling prey to attacks, Azure, Amazon and Google servers being taken over as bot-nets grow larger and larger. This effort, started on a shoestring budget and now funded by Americans, drains them of billions of dollars per year; while 90% of these attacks go undetected. These "Zombie Armies" of computers are gaining power and strength every day.
The problem is everywhere, and they're using our own computers against us.
It's hard to see the forest for the trees in this tangled web, but a pattern is forming. Cyberattacks are on the rise, and not just for financial gain. State-sponsored hacking groups will continue to drain money from our economy, steal our identities, compromise our secrets and grow their networks until they are directed to do something else by their masters. They are doing this in stages, and we are not yet in the final stage.
The ultimate goal of these state-sponsored groups is to create a large Zombie Army of compromised computers capable of systematically attacking multiple critical infrastructures, such as electrical grids, communication networks, airports, banks, and even defense systems. These groups have already amassed enough power to launch small-scale attacks and test our response. However, it's only a matter of time before they gain the necessary coordination, power, and orders to launch a full-scale cyber-attack on any country, including the United States.
In light of the alarming trend of increasing cyber attacks and the potential for a global cyber-war, it is crucial for the U.S. Government to take swift action to prepare for such a scenario. One such action would be the adoption of a dynamic firewall synchronizing system, like Aegis Defender Pro, which has proven effective in protecting vulnerable servers and workstations from the vast majority of networks used by cyber attackers. Implementing such a system would significantly reduce the risk and impact of any potential cyber attack, especially on critical government infrastructure. The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated, and it is imperative that necessary steps be taken to protect national security and safeguard against catastrophic consequences.
