The massive military spending might not be the largest in US military history as Trump suggested as US Congress had approved larger funds during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2007-2012 period.

Then, why is there a need for these vast military expenditures currently, since the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq? The answer might lie in using this massive military budget to compete against rising military cooperation of Russia and China, as well as deterring their famed cyber-attacks.

Not all the money goes to guns and bombs

It was known that a faction of the military budget capped around at USD 100 million will go to test infrastructure and personnel, including for cybersecurity.

Despite smaller funding as compared to the purchase of 77 F-35 fighter aircrafts, the US military may expand spending on this area after the alleged Russian hacking on 2016 presidential elections as well as the reportedly intellectual thefts conducted by the Chinese hackers on US industry.

As US trade tension with China escalates, there might be more measures introduce to shore up cybersecurity for sensitives industry like arms and defense contractors.

Removal of red tapes on Cyberwar declaration

Along with the signing for the big military, US President Trump had also removed some red tapes in cyberwar declaration.

In the past, the cyberwar was bound by the Obama-administration framework named Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD 20), which dictated how and when US can launch cyber-attacks against its enemy in following a multi-agency process of checks and balances.

Apparently, the PPD 20 was replaced by a Trump administration with a more streamline approach, while the details of the new directory remained classified. This could imply now the President of the United States may play a bigger role in the launch of cyber-attacks as compared to previous administration.

United States, the mother of all Weapons of Mass ‘Cyber’ Destruction

US had pioneered a cyber-security agency in 2009 under the name of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). The entity acts as a unified body plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities for military cyberspace operations.

It was heard that since its inception in 2009, the agency has stockpiled numerous ‘cyber weapons’ in its arsenal. Rumour had it that Wannacry, the deadly ransomware attack in May 2017, and NotPetya cyberattack on June 2017 were just exploits developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), which had been stolen and used by malicious hackers to infect computer systems.

Verdict

In the world of Internet, the US always seem to have the cutting edge. After all, the US military played a big role in its development of the Internet in linking various military outposts in an unfortunate event of a nuclear fallout.

Thus, they may hold all the ‘backdoors’ and know which loop holes to exploit for cyber-warfare. As in all war, both ammunition and arsenals need money, and the best prepared army tend to fare better in warfare just as the saying goes, “Fortune favours the prepared mind.”

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First, North Korea is no stranger to the espionage scene, with a history of spy infiltration to other nations to obtain valuable information. Recently, the hermit kingdom has adopted cyberwarfare to hone its already formidable spy networks.

Mastermind behind “WannaCry”

Apparently, North Korea was asserted by the United States, United Kingdom and Australia behind the attack of the ransomware crypto-worm that affected about 200,000 computers across 150 countries last year.

It was one of the most unprecedent ransomware incident that occurred in history since its initial outbreak over the May 12-15, 2017 period. One of its most famous victims was the UK’s National Health service hospitals in England and Scotland where over 70,000 devices were affected. However, North Korean authorities denied any wrong doings after that.

Phishing lure ahead of the Summit

In gathering more information for the Trump-Kim summit, North Korean hackers allegedly created a malware dubbed NavRAT for a campaign of phishing attacks on South Korea’s email platform.

Apparently, the malware acted as a lure for web-users interested in the US-North Korea summit as it was distributed via decoy Hangul Word Processor (HWP) documents which is a common format in South Korea with the subject line “Prospects for US-North Korea Summit.hwp.

Cisco Systems’ Talos threat intelligence division believed that the malware, NavRAT had been placed in the South Korea-based Naver Corporation’s email platform since 2016.

No to Nuclear, Yes to Cyber weapon?

In choosing to give up between nuclear arsenal and cyberwarfare, Cory Gardner, US Senator felt that North Korea will rather stick to its guns on the latter.

“There is little hope, however, that the North Koreans will give up their cyber weapons.” said Gardner on his interview with Politico ahead of the summit.

Besides, North Korea has the habit of escalating their cyberattacks in major summit event such the one between South Korean president Moon Jae-In and Kim earlier in the year. Thus, the summit between Trump and Kim will be no exception, with North Korean hackers launching te attacks, while US on the defense.

“There is no precedent for negotiating a country’s cyber capabilities away, and there would be no way to verify or enforce the agreement,” concluded Gardner.

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Many of the hacks happened in the late 2017, signifying that these trends may continue into the New Year, as hackers are essentially human and “old habits die hard. In the meantime, some hackers may modify their methods for system breach for new challenges.

Therefore, the Hackwarenews team has conveniently made a top three “to-do lists” and make sure this list entered into your New Year resolutions.

Fix the micro-processers first

Just after the countdown party, the world’s second largest chipmaker, Intel stunned the world citing its flagships product, the Pentium processers are vulnerable to hack by data-theft bugs such as Meltdown and Spectre.

To be fair, Intel is not alone, as its system is susceptible to Meltdown, other chip designs used in smartphones like Advanced Micro Devices and ARM Holdings fall prey to Spectre. Both Meltdown and Spectre give hackers access to the entire memory contents of computers and later these information can be used for mounting new attacks.

Brian Krzanich, the CEO of Intel then announced over the annual trade show, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Tuesday, 9 Jan 2018, that the company will patch up 90% of the processors made over the past 5 years by the end of this week. The remaining 10% will be secured by the end of January 2018.

Beware of QR codes

Many countries are pushing for cashless society, thank to wide-spread use of online shopping popularized by Amazon and Alibaba. More often now, consumers did not need to bring their wallet, full of physical money notes for shopping on malls and outlet stores – all these can be replaced by a swipe or scan from your personal cellphone.

Some shopping outlets even have promotional QR code for consumers to scan and receive discounts. So whenever there is money, thieves will follow, seeking to siphon credits out of unsuspecting eyes.

Behind these QR codes, there might be some embedded code with malicious content that introduced Trojans and viruses to consumers that eventually steal personal information and so on.

Apparently, the QR code scam is rife in China, according to South China Morning Post, with a significant amount of cash siphoned from consumer pockets unknowingly. To protect yourself, you can be prudent to follow some of steps mentioned at scambusters.org.

Don’t be kidnapped by ransomware

Kidnapping has evolved over the physical realm and now it has gone viral. If you own a business, have an office and making profitable returns over the quarters, then you are exposed to such risk.

Just like any classic kidnapping cases, the hackers will block access of computer system from legit users until a ransom is paid. Apparently, such attacks were on the rise in 2017, thanks to the popularity of the infamous WannaCry ransomware.

Into the New Year, with the toughening of cyber-security among the corporate firms, there is a trend that hackers turning to personal devices like cellphones where users stored personal information on credit card or online shopping credit accounts.

Readers can follow this link on the FBI tips on dealing with ransomware threat. However, the site lacks of suggestions on personal protections over ransomware, but the same principles do apply. So for the rest of 2018, be prudent, street-wise and hope for the best!

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