OSU professor discusses cyberattacks in presentation

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Julie McElroy

The first slide of a PowerPoint presentation is shown as Dr. Jacob A. Mauslein prepares to speak about the growing threat of cyber attacks.

Dr. Jacob A. Mauslein waves his hand during his lecture about the growing threat of cyber attacks. Mauslein is explaining how wars used to be fought to give background on his lecture.

With the Internet becoming more advanced by the day, the question of how cyber attacks will change and what their repercussions could be remains unanswered.

Political science professor Jacob Mauslein spoke on campus Tuesday evening about the possible “digital doomsday” the human race faces and the growing threat of cyber attacks.

Growing up, Mauslein said he would fix computers for people in his small hometown. While doing this, he noticed almost every computer had some type of virus on it and became curious to know more. This ultimately led to Mauslein’s expansive education and knowledge on cyber attacks.

From the beginning, humans have found a way to make war in different forms, such as land, sea, air, space and now cyberspace, Mauslein said.

“Every time mankind enters a new realm of being or a new realm of exploration, we weaponize,” he said. 

But the question is: how is war developed in cyberspace? The battle is not over land but rather valuable information.

In pursuit of information, hackers try to breach the U.S. Pentagon’s firewall about 6 million times per day or 250,000 times an hour. 

It’s is not only government property these hackers affect, though, Mauslein said. In 2014, Sony Pictures released “The Interview,” a movie about assassinating North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-Un. Sony received incredible backlash with North Korea threatening to declare war and disclose confidential information if the movie were released.

A hacker group called “Guardians of Peace” hacked Sony in November 2014 and obtained important and confidential information about company employees and their families.

Although we do not know what a cyber war would look like, cyber attacks are still occurring every day, Mauslein said. To prevent viruses, he recommended everyone get some sort of antivirus protection software installed on his or her computer.