Q. Analysis of the Problem of cyber attack?
According to the case, The EZ Company is a prominent organization specialized in information integration and visualization technology. Its success is widely demonstrated based on the sale of its product to global, multibillion dollar companies and to US government agencies. The product had been inspected on its technology and return on investment (ROI) by a myriad of investigators, and several directors of research and development from the Fortune 10 companies that had purchased the product.
The company became an object of Cyber-Bullying, by a blogger that did not have any expertise or formal education in the field; furthermore, its postings were not a reliable source of information for experts in information integration and visualization technologies. The directors of research and development from the Fortune 10 companies had ignored the blog because they did not know about it since it was not specialized in the field.
The attack seemed to have originated by a grudge with company principals that appeared years ago. This attack had been extended to customers, researchers, and employees of the company. The blogger had been trying to reconcile and clarify the incorrect statements that were made by email. But emails were manipulated and posted online his intentions to prevent the company from selling its product. Although the attack started years ago, it has not affected sales. It appeared that only The EZ Company received the defamation when the owners tried to sell the company. The main problem of The EZ Company is that the savvy suitor is interested in purchasing the company and is using theattack to pull down the price.
As explained in the previous paragraph, the attack seems to have originated by a grudge with company principals that appeared a couple of years ago. This attack is a minor problem for the sales of the product. Information integration and visualization technology is not a massive product, but is an advanced product whose purchase by a company requires numerous research and evaluation. This research and evaluation by the prospective buyer must be based on specialized studies. Therefore, the blog has nothing to do with affecting the product sales for the company.The blog is a major issue for the company's sale because the savvy suitor is using it as an argument to move down the price of the The EZ Company. The blogger is anonymous and it can be sponsored by the savvy suitor.
Dishonest and disgruntled dealers are most likely to attack the company, thereby using social firms for manipulating the information about the respective firms. Tabulating the attacks from all the sources, both outsiders and insiders, the following figures reflects the percentages of the respondents who shared the reason behind the cyber troll attacks: 26 percent stealing of proprietary data and information, 32 percent denial of service, 19 percent damage of networks or data, and 14 percent financial fraud (Weckerle, 2013).
Therefore, the EZ Company will conclude that there opponent is a professional blogger from the past who is in sever disagreement with the company. It can also be concluded from the methods adapted by him that he has an expertise in blogging and web page designing and maintaining. However, the most obvious aspect of the scenario is that the blogger has chosen information as the prime means for achieving his goals. This is not a good news for EZ Company. This is simply because Information warfare in the 21st century is considered to be a very noteworthy threat for any business or company. In fact, various business professionals and other experts have concluded that the information warfare and the weapons used are capable of changing the nature and character of the conflicts more fundamentally as compared to anything in the history, including nuclear weapons and gunpowder (Workman, 2012).
It is important to note at this point that Information warfare that EZ Company faces does not always involves stealing the information from the computer or networks by the attackers. However, the information warfare may include scenarios when the attacker introducing and promoting inaccurate and false information on different mediums to affects the reputation of its victim. The attacker can also make up his own false data and promote it to adversely affect any activity of its target. In addition, the attacker may manipulate the available data and information and twist it for destroying its target.
Therefore, in this case, the information warfare includes a smart professional who basically spreads inaccurate information about EZ to affect the sales of its new integration and visualization technology. He confidently promotes false information about the brand and product on the internet. Moreover, he used out of context chunks from the personal email messages that he received from a few of his victims. These individuals tried to act conciliatory and clarify and identify his incorrect claims and statements on his blogs. However, the blogger did not respond well to this approach as he manipulated and assembled a fabricated content as a "newsletter". He then posted the final content online with obvious intentions of prevent the EZ company from selling the product.
Three important conclusions can be drawn from the above analysis of the problem. Firstly, the attacker has chosen internet as its weapon against EZ Company. For sharing and promoting false information about the EZ Company, he has used all the public platforms on the internet. These include blogs, webpage and social networking sites that are convenient, affordable and effective as they are commonly used. Hence, the blogger has an advantage of accessing and influencing a wide range of public users.
The second conclusion is that the attackers seem to be in no mood for any form of reconciliation with the EZ Company. His response to the personnel emails from the company employees is a strong proof of this aspect. Hence, this points out that the EZ Company has a very persistent rival who seems to go to any means for damaging the company and affecting its activities. Therefore, EZ Company is in a critical position and the blogger is going to be a very tough challenge for the company to deal with.
There are various further unethical activities that he may currently be exercising or plans to exercise to dismantle the company's organization and functioning. The blogger can dominate the internet conversations on different public forums through different ways. These include using money to create more anti-EZ Company Website, cross link these websites and promote them. He can post anti-EZ information on the high-traffic web pages in for raising visibility in the search engines. He can team with the competitor firms of the EZ Company and use promotion utilities to obtain a better position (Suler, 2004). He can post across the famous technology related websites and then cross-list these websites to other similar -nature websites. In short, there exist many, many ways for the attacker to dominate the conversations on the internet. He can use the platforms to influence the customers, clients and business partners of the EZ Company against the new technology introduced by it.
The third most important aspect that can be concluded from the analysis is that the blogger may eventually attempt to penetrate into the computer and network system of the EZ Company. At this stage, this is only a speculation however the nature of the blogger as an attacker highlights the possibility. The blogger twisted and manipulated the email messages which can be considered as a form of information. Moreover, he focused the researchers of the EZ Company in one of the high-traffic blogs. He accused them of being biased to the EZ Company and dishonest to the public about Company's products.
There is a very high possibility that the blogger may eventually use more technical means to penetrate the company's information regarding the newly introduced technology. He will then manipulate the data, publish on different internet forums and promote it through different strategies. This action by the blogger will further affect the company's reputation. In addition, this practice may also affect and upset the dealing and agreements with the companies that have studied and bought the product from EZ Company. Therefore, the analysis of the problem highlights the need of taking immediate measures and actions against the problem. If not dealt immediately and properly, the reputation of the EZ Company, its current dealing with the clients and the fate of the visualization technology is at stake.