U.S. Government Keeps Sites Safe
When cyber attacks hit close to home, we all tend to feel a bit less secure. Like, for example, the time that the NY Times website was shut down by hackers this past August. When government sites go through similar attacks, it can seem like the government is not taking any measures to prevent such problems, but that's not true.
The fact is that the U.S. government takes regular measures to try and avoid cyber attacks and hacks. Sometimes, though, those measures don't pan out – but most of the time they do. Here's a peek at what the U.S. government does in the way of cyber security threats on a regular basis.
Precautionary Measures
The Department of Defense (technically, ‘The Defense Information Systems Agency') is continuously looking for ways to keep sites safe. One of the latest measures has to do with DNS safety. The Department of Defense has recently asked all eligible contractors to help the department when it comes to DNS security. This means reenforcing certain measures to protect military sites and other government sites.
But, that's not all that the government does. Just as businesses hire white collar hackers to find security loopholes where business sites are concerned, the government employs many people that act on the defensive regularly through the Internet. If this is the case, though, how did hackers manage to take down a site like the NY Times site?
How Hackers Get In
Since the NY Times website is not a government site, it is not protected by the same security measures. However, it is an integral part of the U.S. news landscape, so the NY Times site is heavily armed against hackers. Keeping that in mind, you might ask: okay, so what happened?
Interestingly, hackers obtained NY Times.com access codes through a reseller host that was tricked into giving this information away. Exact details of this transaction are not known right now, but the reseller handed the log-in details directly to hackers. Crazy, right? Well, that's the way that hackers manage to get into important sites – though the small cracks and crevices. Can this happen to government sites too?
U.S. Government Keeps Sites Safe: The Vulnerability of Government Sites
The short answer is: yes, government sites can (technically) be tapped into. But, it's not easy to gain access to a government site due to the measures mentioned above. Why does any of this matter? Other than the fact that it's good to know how the government protects its own websites, you can also take tips from government hacker prevention tactics.
If you run a site, keep files in the cloud, or hold information for thousands of clients (as would be the case for a cheap web hosting site), make sure to act defensively. Hire hackers to find loopholes in your site, beware of who has your site log-in information, and keep tabs on everything happening on your site. When it comes to Internet security, staying ahead of the hack is the only way to play it safe. Questions? Ask below.
