{"id":994,"date":"2022-01-26T14:50:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T21:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/?p=994"},"modified":"2022-01-26T14:50:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T21:50:58","slug":"malicious-attack-towards-the-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/2022\/01\/26\/malicious-attack-towards-the-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"Malicious Attack Towards the Missing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image sourced from Andreas SOLARO \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The largest humanitarian network has had their information compromised and thousands of people will continue to suffer because of it. Although the hackers use of the sensitive information is yet to be discovered, countless troubles have come from the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the ICRC?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral organization based of off the Geneva Conventions of 1949. [1]<\/sup> It responds to conflict and promotes humanitarian law and principles. As summarized in the below tweet, the ICRC has many different focuses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Geneva Conventions ensure:

Torture is unacceptable.
The dead deserve dignity.
Hospitals are not attacked.
Sexual violence is prohibited.
Sick and wounded are cared for.
Detainees are treated humanely.
Families know the fate of missing relatives.

They preserve our humanity.<\/p>— ICRC (@ICRC) August 12, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The main topic of the current news regards their missing persons mission. The Restoring Family Links program [2] <\/sup>works to find and – if possible – reconnect missing persons to their families. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Groups set out to assist those caught in the middle of war, natural disaster, migration or other conflict. On average this movement helps reunite 12 missing people with their families each day. Without this program families are forced to live with the uncertainty of their loved ones fates, while still dealing with the external conflict that put them in such a situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Breach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Image sourced from https:\/\/gntech.ae\/kaspersky-2016-top-threats\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On January 19th, the ICRC announced that a cyber-attack breached their servers, exposing the personal information of over 515,000 individuals. The information contained names, contact information, and locations of half a million highly vulnerable people and their families, as well as the login information of around 2,000 staff and volunteers. [3] <\/sup>This attack forced the ICRC to take all of the compromised servers offline, halting the Restoring Family Links program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your actions could potentially cause yet more harm and pain to those who have already endured untold suffering. The real people, the real families, behind the information you stole are among the world’s least powerful.”<\/p>– Robert Mardini, Director-General of the ICRC<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The breach was executed on the Switzerland-based contractor responsible for storing the non-profits data. The hackers are yet to be identified and the information has yet to be leaked but the attack was specifically aimed at the ICRC’s systems. This targeted attack could only lead to more suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We are appalled that this humanitarian information has been compromised.

Our most pressing concern now is the potential risks for people that the Red Cross and Red Crescent network seeks to protect and assist.@RMardiniICRC<\/a>'s response to the cyber attack \ud83d\udc47 pic.twitter.com\/lBBGlnMf1p<\/a><\/p>— ICRC (@ICRC) January 20, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ICRC’s Concerns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ICRC’s response of taking down the affected servers disrupted the work of the Restoring Family Links program, but the ICRC worries that this will not be the only created issue. Work arounds for the Family Links program can be created, data can be stored in new secure systems, but one thing that may prove harder to reinstate is the trust of vulnerable populations with the Red Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Stolen information could be used to phish or scam those looking for friends and family. We saw multiple cases of this during the Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, with fake Red Cross websites, emails, and more.\u201d<\/p>Chris Boyd, lead analyst at Malwarebytes [4]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sensitive information may seem to no longer have a safe place. With the violation of sensitive data, and the possibility of misuse, the ICRC has urged the perps not to share or leak the stolen information. This information has weaponized the little power the powerless have and surely has taken away their hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/en\/who-we-are<\/a><\/li>
  2. https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/en\/what-we-do\/restoring-family-links<\/a><\/li>
  3. https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/red-cross-worried-about-misuse-of-stolen-data-by-nation-states-cybercriminals\/<\/a><\/li>
  4. https:\/\/techhq.com\/2022\/01\/anguish-and-suffering-experts-analyze-the-massive-red-cross-data-breach\/<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The largest humanitarian network has had their information compromised and thousands of people will continue to suffer because of it. Although the hackers use of the sensitive information is yet to be discovered, countless troubles have come from the attack. What is the ICRC? The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Malicious Attack Towards the Missing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cpsc-329-602-w22","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Caitlin McConnery","author_link":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/author\/caitlin-mcconnery\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpsites.ucalgary.ca\/isec-601-f21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}