Headline April 09, 2018/ ''' *ANVIL* GLOBAL ATTACKS '''

''' *ANVIL* GLOBAL ATTACKS '''

TO HIS PARENTS HORROR : Mr. Ben-Oni, dropped out of college to pursue his love of hacking full time.................

*MERIUM, RABO, HALEEMA*,  Dee, Seher/Kings College, Aqsa,  Sarah, Zill, Emaan/LUMS, Armeen/LUMS, Sherbano, Nina :

By the way, Are we ready for a Master Cyberattack on the World Students Society?  and  Sam Daily Times : *The Voice Of The Voiceless*.......?

And are we going to continue hiding in blogspots and hanging on to Google's coat tails? :

Hussain? Shahzaib? Umair Nasir?  Jordan? Faraz? Haider? Ali?  Umer, Salar? Reza/Canada? Vishnu/India? Toby/China? Bilal? Zaeem? Danyial? Awais Khattak? Majeed/Malaysia? Ghazi? Ehsan?       

Well, here is a *study in reality* of  A Cyberattack that 'the world isn't ready for.

IN 2017 - THERE HAVE BEEN TIMES - stretching between May and June when Golan Ben-Oni has felt like a voice in the wilderness.

The same year, on April 29, someone hit his employer, the IDT Corporation, based in New Jersey, with two cyberweapons that had been stolen from the National Security Agency.

Mr. Ben Oni, the global chief information officer at IDT, was able to fend them off, but the attack left him distraught.

In 22 years of dealing with hackers of every sort, he had never seen anything like it.

Who was behind it? How did they evade all of his defenses? How many others had been attacked but did not know it?

Since then, Mr. Ben-Oni has been sounding alarm bells, calling anyone who will listen at the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Jersey attorney general's office and the-

*Top cybersecurity companies in the United States to warn them about an attack that may still be invisibly striking victims undetected around the world*.

*And he is determined to track down whoever did it*.

''I don't pursue every attacker, just the ones that piss me off.'' Mr. Ben-Oni told the researcher recently over lentils in his office, which was strewn with empty Red Bull cans.

''This pissed me off and, more importantly, it pissed my wife off, which is the real litmus test.''

Two weeks after IDT was hit, a cyberattack known as WannaCry ravaged computers at hospitals in England, universities in China, rail systems in Germany, even auto-plants in Japan.

No doubt it was destructive. But what Mr.Ben,Oni had witnessed was much worse, and with all eyes on the WannaCry destruction, few seemed be paying attention to the attack on IDT's systems - and most likely others around the world.

The strike on IDT, a conglomerate with headquarters in a nondescript gray building here with view of the Manhattan skyline 15 miles away, was similar to WannaCry in one way:

Hackers locked up IDT data and demanded a ransom to unlock it.

But the ransom demand was just a smoke screen for a far more invasive attack that stole employee credentials.

With those credentials in hand, hackers could have run free through the companies computer network, taking confidential information or destroying machines.

Worse, the assault which has never been reported before, was not spotted by some of America's leading cybersecurity products, the top security engineers at its biggest tech companies-

Government intelligence analysts or the F.B.I. which remained and remains consumed with the WannaCry attack.

WERE it not for a digital blackbox that recorded everything on IDT's network, along with Mr. Ben-Oni's tenacity, the attack might have gone unnoticed.

SCANS for the two hacking tools used against IDT indicate the company is not alone.

In fact, tens of thousands of computer systems all over the world have been ''backdoored'' by the same N.S.A. weapons. Mr. Ben-Oni and other security researchers worry that-

Many of those other infected computers are connected to transportation networks, hospitals, water treatment plants and other utilities. 

An attack on these systems, they warn, could put lives at risk.

And Mr. Ben-Oni - fortified with adrenaline, Red Bull and the house beats of Deadmau 5, the electronic dance music producer - said he would not stop until the attacks had been shut down and those responsible behind bars.

''The world is burning about WannaCry, but this is a nuclear bomb compared to WannaCry,''  Mr. Ben-Oni said.

''This is different. It's a lot worse. It steals credentials. You can't catch it, and it's happening right under our noses.''

And, he  added. ''The world isn't ready for this.''

TARGETING THE NERVE CENTER

Mr. Ben-Oni, 43, a Hasidic Jew, is a slight man with smiling eyes, a thick beard and a hackers penchant for mischief.

He grew up in the hills of Berkeley California, the son of an Israeli immigrants.

Even as toddler, Mr. Ben Oni's mother said, he was interested in toys. She said to take him to the local junkyard to scour for typewriters that he would eventually dismantle on the living room floor.

As a teenager he aspired to become a rabbi but spent of his free time hacking computers at the  University of California, Berkeley, where his exploits more accidentally took down Belgium's entire phone system for 15 minutes.

The Honor and Serving of the latest *Operational Research* on Cyberattacks and Cyber Warfare continues. And with many thanks to author and researcher Nicole Perlroth.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! - the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Technology Changing History '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless