In our current world of technology, many developments have surfaced over the years with the advancement of the internet and its uncountable potentials.

With this advancement comes the darker side of its potential as well. It has become a weapon in itself for the destruction of the infrastructures that support our nation’s support systems and other areas of our foundation.

With the potential comes a breed of players that would utilize this area for massive irreparable destruction to our nation’s network grid as well as other nations as well. It is a crucial area to be looked at intently, monitored, and curbed before massive damage occurs.

There must be measures developed, installed, and taken, to prevent the occurrence of an immeasurable destruction on a national level in our country’s internet infrastructure. To be totally effective in this area of prevention and foresight, our nation’s IT security team must look at the base grid of the internet system and its flow of function, possible loopholes, and flaws yet undetected and or secured, whereby such an act could be initiated. With that in mind, I have laid down a number of suggestive steps for the security team to investigate as potential possibilities to prevent and also counter this avenue of attack.

These suggestive steps may seem like a layman’s version of figuration of a possible and expensive fix on a large scale but in the long haul – we would be ahead of this cyber game of ‘cat and mouse’ and the intending perpetrators might think twice before trying to bring us down as a nation via the IT world of cyber terrorism. All nations should start to look at this very real (which had occurred already in some smaller countries) possible future event to their own nation’s security, and begin to build their own fortress of protection while there is time and all is not yet lost.

1.    Begin looking at the core itself and the many varied possibilities of where such potentials of penetration could occur, then the work must begin to make changes to repair and strengthen the loopholes, keeping in mind that this adjustment must be able to withstand and keep up with the newer and upcoming innovative changes in the IT world over a span of three to five years in longevity, before the next overhaul of the entire core system if necessary. This will provide our nation, the necessary constant monitor, of an upgraded system where it keeps abreast of the continuous changes in the ever expanding IT world of growth and expansion. If needed, dissect the whole core structure itself, and see the flaws to be worked on to improve the whole system and fortify its penetration. If doing so means that there might be a total revamping of the base foundation, then it must be so.

2.    After securing the foundation of the heart of the system, begin to install the multiple layers of detours necessary for the buffering from any potential cyber terror threat to our IT infrastructure. It would be wise to use such foresight and act upon it now, then to look back in hindsight that this should have been upgraded and improved on. This would ultimately save our nation billions of dollars in losses and avert much extended destruction, in the event of the occurrence of a massive cyber attack. These steps should not be delayed and carelessly monitored, but diligently worked on to begin a rigorous security stronghold of making our national IT infrastructure an impenetrable fortress, from the possible cyber continuous and or mass attacks.

3.    If this complex grid system is set up and as a fortress or buffer for the heart of the system and its protection, it will be a form of safeguard and strengthened buffer if such an attack should occur. There would be a multitude of intertwined cobweb layers in different directions, so the perpetrators would not know exactly which layer is the layer that should be penetrated in order to hit the target they have chosen. In the midst of the layers would be multiple timed pass codes that need to be hacked, before they can even arrive at their destination (if they have found the path that leads to it) to begin their intended destruction. This would be a crucial step of prevention and delay for our security forces, in order to allow them to track the origins of such an attack. In this step itself, the perpetrators would have to exert much time to figure which layer would be the layer to target, and in which direction to embark on that leads to the heart of the system, as the whole grid looks like an intertwined cobweb (as in the maze effect), and each looking like the other similar to the mirror effect.

4.    In initiating further security steps to prevent our systems from being penetrated, when such a possible penetration has begun by some cyber terrorist, there must also be multiple layers of alarms set in place once the initial cobweb has been penetrated, to alert our security team that a cyber intervention has begun and is in progress.

5.    The new revamped multiplex systems must also have backup shut off points, in the event these terrorists are successful in penetrating the heart of our system where the massive damage would occur. Points in the grid must be set up within the system shutting itself down at the point of penetration, whilst a separate backup system then kicks into gear, to maintain the uninterrupted operations and continued functioning of our various infrastructures. In this way no infrastructure is threatened and the intended damage is avoided. In this step, it may require that our government’s IT security team work with other departments on a national level, that should have buffer controls set up as well in their IT network, so that in the event that the main core of our system has been penetrated, the backup  systems can immediately send out a national alert to all of the separate main infrastructures nationwide to go into high security alert as well on their mainframes, and monitor their own systems from crashing or malfunctioning and creating  massive damage.

Other thoughts:

“Like a chess game, we figure steps ahead of our opponents to predict their next move and to counter those moves before they do damage. Technology is man-created and so if it can be built, so can it be dismantled for analysis and further fortified re-construction. These potential and imminent additional fortifications should be able to withstand and keep up with projected technological IT innovations that would stretch into the future. It is not a menial task but one of infinite continuous hours of concentrated effort and of multiple experimental applications. It should be rebuilt from the standpoint of ‘advancing’ future IT technology. This would provide a safeguard for our nation’s infrastructure. This is of top priority in today’s world of securing our nation from perpetrators who no longer need to cross physical borders to inflict damage to our nation’s security.”