Cybersecurity Threats to the Critical Infrastructure

Brian Lozada

This chapter focuses on the cyber terrorism and highlights the impact and effects of present and future attacks by international cyber-terrorist organisations on the critical infrastructure of the US and other countries globally.

The threat of cyber attacks has a scope much broader than the civilian and corporate realms: in recent years, as more critical national infrastructures are becoming computerised, the fear of cyber attacks on government agencies and organisations has become a risk to the nation’s security. With new technological advances every day, the cyber sphere has become a new opportunity for cyber warfare, which will only increase and become more sophisticated in the wake of the ever-changing threat landscape. With the cyber sphere emerging as a new battleground for warfare, attacks will be more sophisticated and have the potential to have devastating impacts, shutting down power grids, telecommunication lines, transportation, commerce and every action of daily life. The recovery efforts of a major cyber warfare attack would be significantly greater, given that most companies and infrastructures are not prepared and have not invested in cyber incident response and