Cyberattacks on businesses, governments, and other organizations are happening at an accelerating rate, a former FBI executive and security expert told The Epoch Times.
The attacks allow anonymous criminals to quickly, cheaply, and easily crash websites, according to James Turgal, a former executive assistant director for the FBI Information and Technology Branch (CIO).
Recently, conservative activists have fallen victim to these cyberattacks.
Turgal now serves as vice president of cyber risk, strategy, and board relations for Optiv Security, a cybersecurity consulting company.
Hiring a cyber villain is easy, if you go to the right places online, he said, and one can buy a month of attacks for as little as $3,000.
“They'll just go ahead and attack [a website] for me if I pay them,” he said.
Parental rights group Moms for Liberty faced a “very sophisticated and massive” attack that shut down its website for two hours, group co-founder Tina Descovich told The Epoch Times.
Also hit recently was the Leadership Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to training mostly conservative activists, leaders, and students, the organization disclosed in an email to people affiliated with the group.
Both organizations have operational websites again.
Cyberterrorism on Rise
In the case of Moms for Liberty, “no data was compromised, at all,” Descovich said.“But we had extensive cyberterrorists come after us at a global level. So it was intense, and it was sustained over many days.”
Attackers used a massive network of computers to send millions of requests to the Moms for Liberty website, she said. The many requests overloaded the website’s servers, causing it to crash.
The attack knocked down Moms for Liberty’s website for two hours at first, then for several other smaller intervals over the next few days, said Descovich.
Without Moms for Liberty’s excellent security team, the attack could have put their website down for far longer, she said.
The hacker network known as Anonymous claimed credit for the attack.
The group posted on Twitter on June 6 that members have been “targeting and speaking out against Moms for Liberty for awhile [sic] as a hate group.”
The post continued, “We are proud to say The Southern Poverty Law Center agrees and is for the first time labeling Florida-headquartered Moms for Liberty a hate group! This is a huge win.”
Four days earlier, Leadership Institute issued a press release that said “the criminal gang ‘Anonymous’ waged an all-out war on” the organization’s website.
“They briefly took down LI’s website and brought to a temporary standstill the important work you and I are doing to create conservative leaders,” wrote Leadership Institute external affairs director Carol Wehe Cocks in the statement.
The Leadership Institute didn’t respond to requests for comment.
But Moms for Liberty won’t be stopped by cybercriminals, Descovich vowed. The group is far too dedicated to promoting parental rights and parental control of education to back down, she said.
Digital Defense
For anyone with a website, stopping cyberattacks should be a top priority, Turgal said.“I’ve worked cases where it’s small businesses, brand new startups. I’ve worked cases of companies and banks that are 100 years old,” he said.
Compared to other methods of disrupting businesses, an online offensive gives an attacker many advantages, Turgal said. It’s hard to catch attackers who only appear online, and it’s relatively cheap to mount a cyberattack, he said.
“It is a relatively low-level effort by the threat actor,” Turgal said. “It is a high level of effort to defend these things.”
Yet the damage can be extremely consequential. Cyberattackers can cut off a website’s connection to its audience, depriving it of sales, attention, or organizing ability.
Other forms of attacks can capture private information, disrupt functions, or steal money.
Attackers’ motivations vary, he said.
“They want to wreak havoc, create chaos,” Turgal said.
Shortage of Cyber Defenders
Cyberattack networks can run without human direction, searching the internet for any websites with vulnerabilities, Turgal said.Research in 2018 by the business mentoring group SCORE suggested 43 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses.
Yet despite increasing numbers of cyberattacks, there aren’t nearly enough cyberattack experts, Turgal said.
“There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of close to a million or 2 million empty IT [information technology] positions out there in the world,” he said. “There’s just such a need for them, and there’s a lack of those resources.”
Hiring a cybersecurity analyst can cost around $90,000 yearly, according to jobs website GlassDoor. Companies also can hire a cybersecurity company to provide services. Costs vary widely.
Every company can do a few things right away to improve cybersecurity, Turgal said.
It’s important to train employees to practice “good cyber hygiene,” insisting on their use of strong passwords and multi-step processes to log in to sensitive online systems. They should back up files regularly, encrypt information, and have a plan for what to do when things go wrong, he said.
It’s also a good idea to hire a cybersecurity company to perform a risk assessment, he said.
The ‘Hate Group’ That Welcomes All
Though hackers and others have labeled the organization a “hate group,” Moms for Liberty is nonpartisan and members include parents, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-heterosexuals, and others.“We have members of the LGBT community that are leading chapters and even on our national team,” Descovich said.
The opposition to Moms for Liberty puzzles Descovich.
“This is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of moms trying to voice their opinions about their children and claim their seat at the table in their children’s public education,” she said. “There is no reason to have this level of attacks coming our way.”
After the initial cyberattack, several follow-up attacks shut down the Moms for Liberty website for a few minutes at a time, Descovich said.
Supporters sounded the alarm with messages reporting website trouble. Moms for Liberty computer gurus got right to work.
Fighting Back On Cyberattacks
Descovich warns that anyone can face online threats at any time, and it’s best to get security before an attack.“It can completely debilitate your work” and the mission, she said. “When somebody attacks you like that, it completely silences you in the cyber-arena.”
Many activist groups reach their audiences online, so cyberattacks can be devastating for the unprepared who become targets, she said.
With the recent cyberattack resolved, Moms for Liberty leaders plan to strengthen the organization and “move forward,” Descovich said.
“You have to have determination, grit, and the will to continue on when the hits come.”
Four are Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Also scheduled to speak is Democratic candidate and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
