Twenty years ago, it was not necessary for authorities to have hacking skills. In fact, there were (and still are) completely separate departments for hacking/cyber security. With the recent and abrupt rise of cyber-attacks afflicting the world, over 80% of the UK’s police force has dedicated some of their time to learning Hacktivism.
There are a million reasons why authorities learning Hacktivism could be beneficial. The major value is iterated by lead cybersecurity instructor, Phil Chapman:
“Back in the day the officers would just turn up, pull the electric supply out of the computer, bag it, tag it and wait for forensic investigation. This could take months before they retrieved meaningful information from the system.”
Hacking is not only a recommendation for authorities today; it’s a necessity. When you’re working on a case, you need to utilize speed as much as possible. The longer you take to figure things out, the more vulnerable the situation becomes.
In light of this recent proposition, UK police officers are spending every week learning cyber security training and techniques from professionals. The cyber security curriculum is filled with all of the requirements needed to achieve maximum security potential.
In Wired UK’s blog, they discuss the situation in more detail,
“Their training covers every aspect of information security, from politically-motivated hacking (known as hacktivism) to encryption and cryptography. To better understand and respond to the threat of cybercrime, officers are also learning how to hack.
Police get to grips with the entire process of hacking – starting from information-gathering reconnaissance to track-covering by restoring the computer to its pre-attack state. The curriculum even culminates in industry-recognised cyber security qualifications, like EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker.”
It is still up in the air on whether these lessons will pay off. Regardless of the outcome, authorities getting trained in cyber security are a great start. Other areas should consider taking a page out of the UK’s books and set up their own hacktivism curriculum for law enforcement officials.