Ron Rhodes - Cyber Meltdown: Bible Prophecy and the Imminent Threat of Cyberterrorism

As has been our habit for a number of years, Bob Hawkins Jr., LaRae Weikert, and I met for breakfast one morning in early 2010. Bob is the president of Harvest House Publishers; LaRae is the vice president of the editorial department. We like to meet periodically, toss around ideas for future book projects, and enjoy a nice meal.

On this particular morning, I shared with them my desire to write Cyber Meltdowna book that deals with such things as computer viruses, cyber attacks, cyber war, cyberterrorism, and the way these things may relate to biblical prophecy. It is definitely a different kind of book, and I so appreciate the way Bob and LaRae both immediately got behind it. A special thanks go not only to them but also to the entire team at Harvest Housetoo many folks to mention but all greatly appreciated.

Of course, as always, I want to also publicly thank my wife, Kerri, and my two grown children, David and Kylieboth college students. They continue to be marvelous gifts to me from the Lord, vessels of Gods love, grace, and encouragement. I am blessed.

Your nation, the United States, is under attack from
foreign enemies. You are already aware of the international
threat posed by terrorist organizations like al-Qaida, and
you know only too well what the acts of real-world, real-life
violence wrought by such groups can do to Americas citizens

Another shadow conflict is taking place behind the veil of
modern technology. Every minute of the day, external foes are
mounting assaults on American infrastructure, civilian American
assets, and American military targets. Those enemies do this
through the virtual world. Their foot soldiers are an army of
disparate computer hackers, ranging from state-sponsored
operatives to ordinary people in almost every nation on the planet.

P HIL E LMORE ,
Why We Need Cyber-Warriors Now,
WorldNetDaily

Here, hackers refers to skilled computer programmers who are adept at writing computer code and gaining unauthorized access to computers and networks. In popular usage in the media, the term often refers to cyber criminals.

(These statistics are gleaned from the text of this book. Endnote citations occur at their first occurrence.)

Seventy-three percent of people in the world have experienced some form of cyber crime, 55 percent have been victims of computer viruses, and only 13 percent feel very safe while online.

Cyber experts warn that an electronic equivalent of Pearl Harbor could be inflicted on the U.S. in a mere 15 minutes.

When analysts at Google examined several million Web pages for the presence of malicious software in 2010, they determined that 4.5 million of the pages they examined were suspicious. Further tests revealed that more than a million automatically downloaded malicious software to users.

Stuxnet, a highly virulent computer virus introduced in 2009 (and still active as of December 2010), has been called a cyber shot heard around the world, a first-of-its-kind guided cyber missile, a cyber superweapon, the first direct example of weaponized software, and a working and fearsome prototype of a cyber-weapon that will lead to a new arms race in the worlda cyber arms race.

One cyber attack from North Korea knocked out the websites of the U.S. Treasury, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Transportation. Also hit were the websites of NASDAQ, New York Mercantile, the New York Stock Exchange, and The Washington Post.

Logic bombspackets of malicious software codehave infected the computers and networks that control U.S. power grids. They have been positioned there by Russian and Chinese governments for future use. These logic bombs are waiting for a signal from one of these countries, and once they are activated, electricity will be knocked out in the U.S. for a significant time.

The number of U.S. Senate security events per month is now about 1.8 billion (yes, billion).

Each day, 13.9 million computer attacks are launched against the Senate Security Operations Center.

Thousands of terabytes of data has been stolen from U.S. networks through cyber espionageten times the amount of information stored in the U.S. Library of Congress.

For 18 minutes in April of 2010, Chinas state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15 percent of the entire worlds Internet traffic, including data from the U.S. military and civilian organizations in America and allied countries.

Chinese hackers stole multiple terabytes of data on the new F-35 jet fighter from the computer networks of the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, the Missile Defense Agency, and Sandia National Laboratories.

Chinese hackers penetrated 1300 computers at several embassies and were able to remotely activate computer webcams and microphones without embassy users knowledge. This Peeping Tom and eavesdropping cyber espionage continued for two years before being discovered.

Israel utilized a sophisticated cyber attack to render Syrias radar system completely blind to incoming fighter jets.

More than 140 countries possess cyber warfare capabilities.

Malicious computer hackers often tweak their viruses until they are no longer recognized by todays popular antivirus software programs.

Online services provide cyber attacks against targeted websites or networks. Economy attack packages start at $20 a month; deluxe attack capabilities go for about $100 a month.

antivirus software

Antivirus software identifies malware and prevents users from installing it or, if it has already been installed, removes it from the computer. Such software performs on-access scanning, which means that every time a software program runs or a file is accessed, it is examined to see if any viruses are present. The software also performs on-demand scanning, in which the program is activated specifically to look for viruses on the computer.

botnet

A botnet is a network of zombie or robot computers (bot is short for robot, and net is short for network) infected by a computer virus that allows them to be controlled by an unauthorized remote userso remote that he or she could be in another country. This usually takes place without any knowledge of the computers owner or user, though the computer may seem to run a bit slower. Such a network of robot computers is typically used to launch an attack against a target website, often by flooding the target website with messages. This causes the website to become jammed or to shut down altogether.

carder

A carder is someone who makes illegal credit card transactions. Carders abound in cyberspace.

cyber attack

A cyber attack is an action or an assault that damages other computer systems or networks, scans their data, or gains control of them. These systems are then used to perform actions contrary to their programming, thereby providing the hacker with some strategic benefit or advantage.

cyber criminal

A cyber criminal engages in illegal activities in cyberspacesuch as using malware to steal credit card information from other computer users or gain control of their systems.

cyber espionage

Cyber espionage is unauthorized probing of a target computers configuration to evaluate its system defenses or to view and copy data files. Cyber espionage typically results in information theft.

cyber strategy

Cyber strategy is the development and employment of strategic capabilities to operate in cyberspace, integrated and coordinated with other operational domains (air, land, sea, and outer space), to achieve objectives of vital interest.

cyber warfare

Cyber warfare includes hostile attempts to penetrate a nations computers or networks to gain strategic or military advantage or to cause damage or disruption in the system. Cyber warfare may be used in concert with kinetic attacks (such as ground, air, or naval attacks).