How to Survive a Cyber Attack and Cyber Disaster on the Internet

The threats of cyber attack and cyber disaster are real and escalating. Network infrastructure and information, data, and communication systems are all at heightened cyber risk of cyber attack and cyber disaster. Intrusion, spyware, malware, viruses, worms, et al. are some of the weapons in this overt and covert cyber warfare. Cyber risk assessment, cyber risk mitigation, and cyber security protocols and practices must be a national priority.

Internet security, .equally, for you the individual, is essential. Cyber security must be an individual, personal priority.

Are you personally prepared to survive a Cyber Armageddon? Do you have an individual, personal Internet Disaster Recovery Plan?

Internet Disaster Scenario
It's Sunday, 11pm EST. You've just finished the final draft on three articles for Associated Content. One - with great keywords and keyword phrases you've extracted from four day's deep research pouring over forecasting models and trend analyses - is not time sensitive and you're submitting non-exclusive for upfront payment. The second, a C4C, has to be in by tomorrow. The third, to jack up your PV's immediately, you're submitting for display only.

You crank into your wireless network and go to the Associated Content site to log in. Seconds drag...and drag. You know what's coming.

You get a 404, "requested resource could not be found," error message. Shit! Before you can move, you get a 410, "Gone," error message. What? You've never seen that one before. While you're still trying to digest that one, a 500, "Internal Server Error," error message slaps you into a smile. System's fail, you remember, and you reach to reboot. Before you can, the screen goes black.

Whatever... You turn your desktop off manually and then go to the laptop. You power up, hit the network - and nothing. Black screen. You do a system repair and watch as the usual "disabling...," "enabling adapter" messages come, and wait for the "connecting to wireless network" and "renewing IP address" messages. They don't come. Instead, you get "unable to connect to network."

O.k., o.k., you'll check the router and the modem. The router and modem seem to be a.o.k., but you power them off anyway and then back on. You go back to your desktop, bring it up, hit the network, and - black screen.

Damn ISP! Some genius network admin doing unannounced maintenance. You're going to call and ream someone a new asshole.

You pick up your digital phone to dial - but it's dead. What?

O.k., it's becoming clearer now. You turn on the TV to check the cable just to make sure. Yup. Just as you suspected. The entire ISP bundled service package, Internet, phone, and cable, is down.

You stop by the kitchen, refill your glass of Pinot Noir, and flip your cell open to give the ISP a wake-up call. Your cell announces the numbers as you punch them in, you push 'dial,' and get primed to nail someone. No ring on your cell. In fact, no sound. You cancel out and redial. Nothing.

Your cell service provider is different from your ISP. Why can't you call your SP? Battery charge and signal bars are full.

Maybe you're too tired to think straight. You go to bed. The gremlins will be exorcized by tomorrow morning.

Monday morning, early. You're up, showered, and in the kitchen grinding your Starbucks coffee in 20 minutes. While the coffee brews, you stroll into the study to power up the desktop. You go through the start-up routine, bring up your three files, and hit the network. Nothing. UFB!

You check the landline and the cell. Nothing. TV? Zip.

You go out to get the newspaper, expecting a headline or at least a front page piece on some local technical snafu. The newspaper isn't in the driveway. You look in the bushes along the driveway, in the front yard, and up and down the street. No newspaper.

Somebody's playing a joke on you. You don't know how or why, but when you find out who, they'd better have a paid up insurance policy.

You go back inside, turn off the coffee maker, copy your files to a diskette, get into your car, and drive to your FWB's house. She'll still be home this early and will let you upload your stuff through her machine.

You use the key she's given you and slip into her bedroom, maybe prepared for a little diversion. She's sitting up in bed, still in her red silk PJ's, her PC on her lap.

"Late night, Darlin' or early morning?"

"Wow! Jack, am I happy to see you! I can't get my computer to work. Can you help me?"

You stare at her in disbelief and whisper "No."

"I'll be back."

You go back to the car and drive to the corner gas station where there is a POTS payphone. You call the ISP. You notice a strange buzzing, with intermittent clicks, on the line before you get the message "Due to unexpected call volume, we cannot answer your call. Please call back." Click. Dead.

This is beginning to seem like a seedy plot from "The Twilight Zone" or "The X-Files."

Your ISP has a local office about five miles away. You drive there.

This early, the parking lot should be nearly empty. But this morning, it's jammed, with a dozen or so cars having Emergency Management insignia and Highway Patrol tags.

The front doors to the ISP are wide open. Odd. It's already in the mid 80's - haven't these clowns heard about conservation? You walk in and are met by two men in dark suits.

"I.D., please."

You don't respond immediately. They step back and to your sides, flanking you, and instinctively slip their right hands inside their jackets.

"I.D., please." A little louder and less conversational.

HFS!

"Uh, I wanted to talk to somebody about my computer."

"On the floor, now! Hands behind your head!" You obey.

After they search you for weapons, find your I.D. and over walkie-talkies confirm you identity, they help you to your feet.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Please go home."

They've got your attention now and you immediately move to comply, heading out the front doors to your car.

As you drift toward your car, Billie, a friend of yours with the ISP, comes out a side door for a smoke.

"What is going on, Billie?!"

"We don't know, Jack. Everything with any hook to the Internet is locked up and down. Been that way since before midnight."

*****

"Twilight Zone"? "X-Files"? Trailer for next season's "24" premiere ? Nope. 2008 Specter of Internet Threat Reality. And it may not be "if," but "when": Internet down.

Don't Rely on Government, Corporate, and Private Sector "Black Hats" for Internet Protection
There's government-this and global-that trying to blunt cyber attacks, trying to keep cyber disaster from happening. There are US government departments and agencies, corporate IT's, and private sector Internet security and Internet vulnerability firms. They all are trying to stay one step ahead of the whiz bang individual hacker, the technologically enabled terrorist cell, and the rogue nation-state committed to bringing it all down - to tumble the 21st Century backward to the 14th Century.

But, what can YOU do to CYA? What is YOUR Internet Disaster Recovery Plan to safeguard you, your personal interests and property, your small business, when the Internet goes down?

Recommendations for Your Internet Disaster Recovery Plan
1. Maintain and use firewall software on your primary workstation.
2. Run the latest scan and clean software on your primary workstation, daily.
3. Back-up your mission-critical output/production files to CD and diskette. Make two copies. (External hard drives or memory sticks are other options.)
4. Run the latest scan and clean software against your back-ups.
5. Do your back-ups weekly or more frequently, if working on a large-scale project or completing a project.
6. Keep one set of copies in a physical fail safe location like a safety deposit box or a personal, fireproof safe.
7. Don't keep any mission-critical information, data, or output only on the Internet. Going back through your scanned and cleaned primary workstation, include these in your back-up routine. (See Step 3, above.)
8. Maintain a standalone system which IS NOT connected to the Internet. NEVER connect it to the Internet. Place a copy of your weekly back-ups on this system. In case you need hardcopy output, be sure to include sufficient, minimal peripherals with the system. For example, printer, plotter, et al. Never connect the peripherals to the Internet.
9. Never install or load anything except your personal back-ups directly to your standalone system. No freeware, no upgrades, no games or graphics - nothing...not even from friends.
10. Remember how to use a pencil and paper.

These Internet Disaster Recovery recommendations come from nearly ten years' federal, state, and corporate IT experience and practice with Emergency Management, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity Planning. Also, they come from being a writer with valuable intellectual property and knowing how destructive things would/will become if/when the Internet goes down. Finally, they come from a small business owner who has a vested interest in not only his survival, but the survival of America.

The threats of cyber attack and cyber disaster are real and growing. Protect your interests and property from cyber destruction. Make your individual, personal Internet Disaster Recovery Plan a priority.