High street retail at risk of cyber terrorism

The global computer hacking elite has warned that it is only a matter of time before cyber terrorists launch an attack against High Street retail chains such as Tesco and Marks and Spencer.

The Hackers Panel broke cover for the InfoSecurity Europe conference in London, and cited the recent wave of attacks in Estonia – in which the government and many firms were crippled – as the shape of things to come.

Aparrently, if these cyber terrorists want to hit the Uk they will go for well known respected firms rather than government sites.

"I’m afraid we will have to get used to this," said Roberto Preatoni, AKA SyS64738. "We had all been waiting for this kind of attack to happen. Estonia was just unfortunate to be the first country to experience it. But very soon, our own [western] companies and countries will be getting attacked for political and religious reasons. This kind of attack can happen at any time. And it will happen."

Steve Armstrong, who teaches seminars in hacking techniques at the SANS Institute for information security training, added: "If someone wants to have a pop at the UK, they are unlikely to go for the government web servers. They will go for the lower hanging fruit – companies which are seen as good representatives of the country. The likes of Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q can be seen as legitimate targets. At the moment chief executives are only interested in the bottom line. But remember – if tesco.com goes down, that’s a lot of shopping."

Link: BBC