Cyber bullies

Russian agents identified in U.S. hacks

In the year 2014, the Sochi Olympics took place, Robin Williams died and the Ebola virus terrorized the world.

It was also the year in which Russian hackers were responsible for one of the largest data breaches in history.

Two Russian FSB agents and two criminal hackers broke into Yahoo and Google servers and used their unauthorized access to gain entrance into 500 million email accounts, which included Russian journalists, government officials from several countries and employees from top businesses, according to the Washington Post.

The information obtained in the hacks was used to discover trade and economic secrets.

The data was also used by the hackers for personal financial gain by searching the content for credit card numbers and creating a spam campaign.

On March 15, 2017,  a California grand jury indicted the four defendants, two Russian intelligence agents and two that were hired by Russia, seeking to make an example to future hackers that America will no longer turn a blind eye to blatant cyber attacks directed toward American citizens.

“Today we continue to pierce the veil of anonymity surrounding cyber crimes,” FBI Director James Comey said in a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

“We are shrinking the world to ensure that cyber criminals think twice before targeting U.S. persons and interests.”

Cyber espionage and online war is increasing and becoming more prevalent and malicious.

According to the 2015 Cyberthreat Defense Report, 71 percent of Americans were affected by a successful cyber attack.

This is evidence that America as a nation should strive to become more aware of the potential threats to our cyberspace and actively defend against these efforts.

Technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, but it seems American cyber security has not.

This has not only hurt the government but also American companies as well.

The Yahoo and Google hacks are one example of this.

“The U.S. government is three to five years behind the commercial market when it comes to building security in,” Gary McGraw said in an interview with UVA Today.

McGraw, vice president of security technology at Synopsys, said that while America’s online presence is vast, many companies are not building security into their infrastructure, but rather waiting until it is needed and by that time it is too late.

This is not the first major hack to happen to Yahoo. In 2013, more than 1 billion accounts were compromised.

I believe these attacks will continue to happen if our government and businesses do not put more effort into safeguarding the websites we visit.

“Cyberspace is particularly difficult to secure due to a number of factors: the ability of malicious actors to operate from anywhere in the world, the linkages between cyberspace and physical systems, and the difficulty of reducing vulnerabilities and consequences in complex cyber networks,” a Sept. 27, 2016 statement on the Department of Homeland Security website said.

The Yahoo hacks were a painful reminder that America has a long way to go when it comes to the field of cyber security.

But this can also serve as a cautionary tale to the average person to do their best to safeguard against account hacking.

Having a unique password for each website account, avoiding traveling to suspicious or unsafe websites and keeping up-to-date on firewall protection are all listed on DHS website as ways to avoid hacking.

Jones is an opinion writer.