Hackers are sophisticated criminal gangs, often based in Russia or Iran, who lock computer systems and demand ransom payments to unlock them.
They’ve “targeted schools, hospitals, councils, airports, government bodies, oil pipelines, universities, nuclear contractors, insurance companies, chemical distributors and arms manufacturers. Hackers haven’t targeted air traffic controllers yet, but some believe that it’s only a matter of time.”
Something else may be only a matter of time, too.
Hackers, the Guardian notes, aren’t publicity-shy; some give interviews. So we know what they’re thinking. “I know at the very least several affiliates have access to a ballistic missile launch system… It’s quite feasible to start a war,” said an unnamed REvil spokesperson airily in one interview. “But it’s not worth it – the consequences are not profitable.”
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how to make it profitable. That was done long ago by scriptwriters for James Bond movies.
The Guardian article (read it here) goes on at length about the reluctance of victims to talk about it. (“A code of omerta prevails,” the newspaper says.) But I’ll skip over that and cut to the quick. After describing the case of an Indiana hospital whose CEO decided to pay ransom, the Guardian expostulated, “In the world of ransomware, there are no pat moral absolutes.”
When criminals claim they have access to ICBM launch systems and could start a war, and only a lack of monetary incentive is holding them back, it’s time for 100% pragmatism. Pay them for peace? That leaves too much room for error. Someone might pull the trigger anyway. To save the world, you’ve got to neutralize this threat any way you can.
Kill them.
Because they operate from foreign countries, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, this is a job for the CIA and/or whatever dirty, under-the-radar, no-holds-barred mercenaries our government has under contract. We spend over $50 billion a year on the CIA’s budget. If preventing nuclear war isn’t a justifiable use of those funds, then nothing is. Hire assassins, give them all the resources they need to carry out the job, and turn them loose with instructions that failure isn’t an option.
The U.S. should send a clear message to hackers the world over: Talking about, even thinking about, messing with nuclear weapons will get them killed. We’ll come for them. We’ll use all our national resources to identify them, find them, and take them out.
As if our national survival depends on it. Because it does.