Vulnerabilities Of Coast Guard

(U) There are many vulnerabilities in the cyber realm, and they continue to increase every time a new system is added to the fleet. The main goal of Coast Guard cyber intelligence is staying ahead of the hackers. To do this, Coast Guard intelligence needs to understand who will attack them in the future and how they will do it. They need to know everything that was just discussed above, including the type of person, capability, vulnerability, and threat level to the United States government and the Coast Guard. If one or all of these are not known, cyber defenders cannot prepare for an attack. This is why cyber intelligence is so important to the Coast Guard and the government alike. Moreover, reliance on cyber systems within the Coast Guard …show more content…
When systems are shut down and tampered with by outside actors, they become inoperable, and the Coast Guard cannot carry out its mission. For example, if the navigation system of an HH-60J Jayhawk was hacked, and the GPS portrayed a completely different location, or the automated warning system in the aircraft delivered false reports that the helicopter would crash, the helicopter would become inoperable. If there was a current search and rescue case, the aircraft would not be able to save the party in question, and possibly, people would die. Looking at the greater picture, Sergio Galindo, general manager of GFI Software, commented that the many consequences of a cyber-attack are disastrous for the government and the corporations of America alike. “Usernames, passwords, credit card data, health records – malicious use of this data by criminals can quickly create financial hardship and significant stress for affected individuals, while the negative fallout for organizations the data was stolen from can range from loss of reputation to fines, falling sales, civil and criminal legal proceedings and more.” The consequences of cyber-attacks are large, therefore they must be a high priority to insure this does not