We live in economically tumultuous days and even more in the cyberspace. Not a day goes by that you do not observe a striking hack, yet another multinational ridiculed and made bare and vulnerable to human eyes. It’s happened with Sony, with RSA with Stratfor, clay giants collapsed at the hands of groups of hactivists, a game in which the forces involved are comparable despite the predictable budget differences. David against Goliath, the moralizing hackers able to wrest the justice from the hands of those were trampling it.
We must recognize that the model is undoubtedly having an effect on the audience of young people, all know the collective Anonymous and all share its strategy.
And then how to deal with this uncomfortable reality?
I am deeply convinced that an ideology can not be fought with repression, with the arrests, arriving to the clash, but must be well understood and the only way to tackle the threat is come back till its genesis.
A significant aspect is the awareness of the threat among young people. Take part to a cyber attack armed with LOIC is much more of a student spirit, yet this is the perception, the search for an interior dimension where they can feel great among the great, defeating services provided by names such as FBI or CIA with whom they grew up. The threat is high, it is necessary to arrange as soon as possible a serious campaign of information and active participation, we run the risk to have at home a generation of young people ready to be recruited in cyber attacks, a sort of a modern Troy horse .
In an ideal situation the institution should start from below, from schools to present the cyber threats and educate students on the techniques of prevention. This should only be a first step, which should be followed by the arrangement of specific hacking training programs. Many Eastern countries, especially China, are investing heavily in the potential of its young people who are now enrolled and engaged in intense training programs to increase their cyber capabilities.
Let consider the Chinese model, these new recruits are primarily interested in the subject and the central government provides a wide range of relief for deserving students and their families. This in my view means looking ahead, prepare for a future that is radically changing the way we live.
It is required a global change involving the new generation, giving to young people tools and knowledge to understand how disastrous can be a cyber attack and how much is sensitive to the choice of participating in a protest action style Anonymous. We tell them that with the same mode of attack it is possible to offend a hostile country, damaging telecommunications systems and other critical infrastructure.
In this way I am quite sure that the cyber threat like Anonymous can be mitigated … but it is really what we want?
Be careful, I’m not professing to create cyber armies of young hackers but rather a widespread dissemination of information on cyber threats. I live young realities and I know young people’s attention to the matter, it is a pity not to exploit this potential especially in a time of great difficulty as that in which we live. Addressing young in this science we can create job opportunities and increase level of security of our countries.
We must invest in young people, we must invest in security, we must invest in our future!
Pierluigi Paganini
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