ELEC5616_Computer And Network Security_2014 Semester 1_CNS_Lecture_1.pdfVIP

COMPUTER NETWORK SECURITY Lecture 1: Introduction to Security WE ARE ENTERING A BRAVE NEW WORLD... DID CYPHERPUNK COME TRUE? In Japan, half a billion dollars of cryptocurrency gets stolen from a website originally set up to sell Magic: The Gathering trading cards. (MtGox). This decentralised cryptocurrency is based on an open source, peer to peer protocol, developed by a pseudonymous developer using what is believed to be a fake Japanese name. (Bitcoin) In New Zealand, the world’s top Call of Duty player starts a political party to revenge himself on the government who swooped in black helicopters on his James Bond villian’s lair, impounding his sports cars with plates like HACKER and MAFIA (Kim Dotcom). US other allied nations claim they are under constant attack from a Chinese army of government sponsored hackers. China similarly claims it is under constant attack from US government hackers. (Unit 61398) Purchasing drugs is safer and easier using a client for an encrypted global onion routing network on the darknet than hanging out in Kings Cross. (Silk Road, Sheep, Atlantis..) DID CYPHERPUNK COME TRUE? A hacker with silver hair dressed in a suit flies around the world and uses disposable mobile phones and a laptop to spray corporate and government secrets across (relatively) uncontrollable cyberspace. Takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy after potentially being “framed” by the US government for sex crimes (Julian Assange, a character practically out of a William Gibson novel) A government sponsored software worm attacks a uranium enrichment facility in Iran (Stuxnet) An nebulous, headless, anonymous collective of hackers, cypherpunks, kids, criminals and n00bz assemble at a moment’s notice to hack websites, go on social crusades, or alternately catch criminals and deliver random acts of kindness (4chan Anonymous) In Belize, the founder of a billion dollar antivirus company sets up a clandestine drug lab