Courtesy of Toby Brown for the Carmi Kiwanis Club
The Carmi Kiwanians got a lesson in cyber security at their weekly meeting on Thursday, July 17 at the Farm Bureau Building.
Brent Suits, a solutions engineer with Automated Office Solutions out of Evansville, Ind., was the guest speaker. Suits has been working in information technology for over 20 years. He has numerous certifications and works the Dept. of Homeland Security through the Evansville airport.
Among the interesting facts he presented, Suits told the Kiwanians that 43 percent of all cyber attacks target small businesses, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 will exceed $150 million, approximately $6 trillion will be spent on cyber security in 2021, the total cost for cyber crime committed globally in 2018 added up to over $1 trillion, and 95 percent of all cyber security breaches are caused by human error.
He went on to describe the seven types of hackers: black hat, white hat, grey hat, script kiddies, green hat, red hat and blue hat.
According to Suits, black hat hackers are “the ones you read about mostly in the news.
….These are the guys who go after the banks. They’re usually looking to steal money, credit card information, things that they can sell, things that have monetary value.”
Identifying himself as one, Suits said white hat hackers are “known as ethical hackers. We’re the good guys. We test companies’ networks, then go back and let them know where they need to improve.”
He said of grey hat hackers, “It’s literally what it sounds like – they’re not good, they’re not bad. They have their own little agenda so they don’t really fall into the ‘good guy, bad guy’ scenario. They don’t tend to steal money or information. They might take down a website or two. They’re probably the most prolific out of all the groups.”
The biggest group, said Suits, are those called script kiddies.
“These are people that just go out, look at some Youtube videos, download a few tools and basically, just for kicks, try to take something down,” said Suits. “They’re not really as interested in the hacking aspect; they’re looking for the notoriety and the bragging rights.
…Even though it’s a low skill set, they’re a dangerous group of people. They can cause a lot of problems.”
Green hat hackers are “the guys that are new to the hacking industry. They’re the newbies. These guys are trying to learn as much as they can. They’re not real good at their jobs yet, but they’re getting there. They tend to be frowned upon. In hacking forums, they usually ask questions and usually get a lot of static for the questions they’re asking.”
As for the red hat hackers, Suits said, “They’re your vigilantes.
“If I see a Script Kiddie come after the network at the [Evansville] airport, I generally don’t report it because they’re not a big threat. But I will retaliate. I’ll go out after them. That’s what a red hat hacker will do. So whenever I find someone doing that, I create what’s called a ‘honey pot’ on the network, which is a fake server with fake information. And usually, I have some files that have viruses and things that will actually tear up the hacker’s computer on the other side.”
And finally, blue hat hackers are “your ‘hack-tivists.’ The attacks on the Democratic party, those were ‘hack-tivists.’ Wikileaks is a ‘hack-tivist’ group. They have a political agenda so they’re not after monetary gain,” said Suits.
The Kiwanians also heard about the various types of attacks, which include phishing (which is broken down into vishing, spear phishing and whaling), pretexting, baiting, quid pro quo, and tailgating.
Suits also discussed several ways that companies or individuals can protect themselves from these attacks.
In club business, the 50/50 pot had grown to well over $100 and Frank Barbre successfully drew the orange ball to take home the prize of $124 in cash plus a Wal-mart gift card with a balance of $1.22 that had been donated by Dave Johnson. Perhaps fittingly after his generous donation, Johnson then won the drawing for a $10 gas card donated by Huck’s.
In the Good News portion, Barbre donated back the gift card to the club after it was announced his grandson, Ty Barbre, was recently named All-South in track, and that it was already the fifth All-South selection for the youngster, who will be a junior in the fall.
President Katelyne Wolff announced there had been a board meeting recently and that dues will remain the same for next year.
Guests on the day included Jordan and Ella Tinsley (twin daughters of member Jc Tinsley), Amy Craig and Yevie Newman (also guests of the elder Tinsley and new employees at WROY/WRUL Radio), and Tyler Gray, the summer intern for member Andy Acord.
