On January 4, 2019, it was revealed on German television that a successfully conducted cyber attack resulted in the release of thousands of confidential documents.
This cyber attack affected politicians, but also cultural figures, in Germany.
All political parties were affected, except for the AfD, the far-right party in Germany.
The cyber attacks
The cyber attacks reflect the balance of power in the world and the conflicts that are currently taking place.
Thus, the most powerful states at the origin of cyber attacks are also the states that have the most powerful army on land or on the sea.
The enemies in cyber attacks are the same as those emanating from the geopolitical relations.
But new actors can play a role. Thus, it is not necessary to be a great power to take part in cyberwarfare.
We can mention the collective Anonymous, even if this word designates diverse and changing groups of people.
Some numbers:
To regain access to their computer, one in four users are willing to pay the ransom demanded by the hacker, according to a University of Kent’s study on the CryptoLocker variant. IBM reports that 54 percent of consumers are willing to pay more than $100 to get their files back.
In 2016, ransomware earned cybercriminals $1 billion, the FBI estimates.
Source: Silicon
→ General Knowledge: the Digital