The United States of America has a colossal cybersecurity risk. The U.S.A. is a global power, and its research is valuable to other nations. Those other nations are China, Russia, and Iraq. Why these specific countries? It is because they are at war with the U.S.A. It is not a conventional war but the first digital one. It is the most significant war we have ever seen. The U.S.A. risk must include defense contractors, researchers, medical care, and more. The defense contractors have security, move and create their assets without other nations stealing their designs or finding technological weaknesses. In addition, the U.S.A. is a first-world country, meaning that most of the population has access to electricity and clean water. They are leading to substantial critical infrastructure projects and demands. Knocking out a city like New York will lead to chaos and panic throughout the nation because around 8.468 million people live in New York. In addition, there is also Wall Street, where the stock market is held.
Amidst this threat landscape, banks, constituting another critical infrastructure, have become prime targets for cybercrime due to the lure of high payouts. However, smaller countries facing more brutal attacks often escape the spotlight, allowing threat actors to operate with less scrutiny than high-profile U.S. attacks (Maurer & Nelson, 2021). The fragmentation of cybercrime groups’ post-significant attacks decreases the chances of linking them to other malicious activities.
There are about 2,200 cyber attacks per day, as stated by getastra, a cyber security blog website. This means that about every 39 seconds, a new attack has occurred, and the cost is estimated at $8 trillion at the end of the year (James, 2022). In addition, there are about 3.4 billion phishing emails daily (James, 2022). 55% of phishing websites use brand names or try to capture sensitive information (James, 2022). Furthermore, 84% of companies have some cyber security awareness to help reduce the rate at which an employee falls prey to a phishing attack (James, 2022). The scariest fact is that every 11 seconds, a ransomware or phishing attack occurs around the world. Leading to a greater threat to data.
To bring everything together, the U.S.A. has more threats because our reliance on the internet. Banks and other critical infrastructure are constantly being attacked by other nations states groups because it can greatly disrupt the U.S.A. economy if needed and there are 2,200 cyber attacks a day.
References
James, N. (2022, December 1). Phishing Attack Statistics 2023: The Ultimate Insight – Astra Security Blog. Www.getastra.com. https://www.getastra.com/blog/security-audit/phishing-attack-statistics/
Maurer, T., & Nelson, A. (2021). The Global Cyber Threat to Financial Systems – IMF F&D. International Monetary Fund. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/global-cyber-threat-to-financial-systems-maurer.htm