The highly contagious COVID-19 epidemic has stopped the world in its tracks. New Zealanders thought that they were okay and free from the virus as they had been told it had been eliminated. Jacinda told the world she had danced in celebration at the news and Kiwis felt reassured that Ashley Bloomfield, along with the military and security, were busy protecting New Zealand’s borders.
Recently, however the Labour led Government started “Be Ready” full-page spin advertisements and New Zealanders were made aware that COVID-19 could be coming back.
Now the country has been told that COVID-19 is in the community and spreading. Auckland is in a level three lockdown. The decimation of New Zealand’s businesses and the economy will be foremost in everyone’s minds.
There is another epidemic that could easily be overlooked because of the lockdowns and that is the hacking epidemic. Like the COVID-19 epidemic, hacking too can adversely affect people and countries. It is fast-moving, hard to trace and never stops. When it hits, it hits very hard!
Almost daily we hear that hacking is reaching epidemic levels, with many examples around the world. We hear of incidents of cyber war activity, much (but certainly not all) carried out by smart (young) computer geeks. Last week we were reminded of how insidious this is.
Juha Saarinen, a tech writer for the NZ Herald this month, warned in an article “Don’t let kids hack their way into prison.” According to Saarinen, Marcus Hutchins, now 25, Twitter-hacked high profile accounts registered to the likes of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Apple and Jeff Bezos. “Brilliant and tireless” Hutchins’ hacking beat the tech giants’ anti-virus software and firewalls, but eventually he was caught. The WannaCry hero to many, Hutchins is full of regret and guilt over his former life of crime.
In June 2020, Australian PM Morrison warned of Australian government and institutions being targeted by ongoing sophisticated state-based cyber hacks.
Closer to home, Cameron Slater, journalist and founder of the popular NZ based Whaleoil blog found his personal correspondence was hacked in 2014. Nicky Hager, who describes himself as an investigative journalist, met with the hacker and decided to use the ill-gained information to write a book. The book’s name is not worth a mention, as it was written to discredit Slater and the National Party. The pernicious effect was to undermine and cause harm. It was printed just before an election to maximise damage to a political party.
The hacking epidemic is rapidly evolving and destructive. The criminal class who carry out this kind of crime are smart.
In the documentary “Kill Chain”, the weaknesses of America’s basic election infrastructure are laid bare. This documentary is terrifying as it shows how vulnerable US elections are. One of the central figures of “Kill Chain” is the young Finnish election-security expert Harri Hursti, who explains with clarity, just how vulnerable American voting systems are.
Somewhat smugly, he easily hacks the countries Diebold voting machine with just a tampered memory card.
“Even as much of America grinds to a halt, coronavirus has yet to derail the date of the 2020 election. Which introduces a perhaps underestimated terror, as explained in one of the more deceptively scary documentaries to drop in recent weeks: the vulnerable voting machine.
That seemingly benign piece of equipment – the hardware of American democracy – is, as several experts explain in HBO’s (Cable Television Company) Kill Chain: The Cyber war on America’s Elections, nothing more than an obsolete computer.”
The Guardian 26 March 2020.
Hacking, like COVID-19, is difficult to trace and eliminate; the stakes are high, and it can go undetected as hackers become more sophisticated and skilled. Hacking hots up around the world as elections draw near.
The major Cybercrimes are:
- Phishing scams. Phishing is a practice of a cybercriminal or hacker attempting to obtain sensitive or personal information from a computer user
- Identity theft scams
- Debit or credit card scams
- Online harassment and cyberstalking
- Invasion of privacy.
Hacking is malicious. The perpetrator uses their “skill” against the victim to subvert, damage, disrupt, gather intelligence, and/or ruin the target. In the case of Hutchins, the clever young criminal was caught and appears to have learnt his lesson. Slater’s hacker got away with their cybercrime.
Hacking is a not classified as a crime, but it is an offence under the Crimes Act in New Zealand: to access a computer system without authorisation.
“It is important to understand that there is no offence called “hacking” in New Zealand. Instead, there is an offence in the Crimes Act, which is accessing a computer system without authorisation. The offence is punishable with up to two years in jail and came into being in 2003”.
NZ Police
“A person convicted In the USA of certain internet or computer crimes, will have a huge fine and or may also face a prison sentence”.
Nolo, Mark Theoharis, Criminal Defence Lawyer
It can change an important outcome, ruin a reputation, and cause an enormous monetary loss.
Hacking is different for a perpetrator. If not caught, they live an exciting life on the edge, have a short-lived buzz from their shady activity, gain confidence, get a reputation of ability between other criminals, can change an outcome to suit their political allegiance, and are in line for monetary profit.
“Cybercrime cost NZ $6.5 million in three months”. “Alongside financial losses at a quarterly high though, the incidents reported in quarter two were also impacting New Zealander’s day – to – day lives and business operations.
– TVNZ 1 News 2019.
“Cyber incidents can also result in other types of loss like data, reputation and operational.”
CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) NZ Director Rob Pope
New Zealand and the USA have elections soon. Voters need to be able to believe in the voting system. In the past a criminal might break in and steal but now they can do it effortlessly from their keyboard.
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