Currently in the Netherlands, 3 major banks and the digital systems of our tax authorities are under a pretty severe DDoS attack. Somehow, when the mainstream media report about this type of stuff, I'm always awestruck by the amount of FUD and unfounded, uneducated idiocy reported by the MSM. You might have guessed it already, yes, as newsreports come in all day on the radio, it's the Russians again, of course, the same nonsense story the MSM always tells.
Tonight I switched on the television. There was a woman 'expert' and a woman interviewer, see the below photo, the 'expert' (on the left side) does not really look like she knows what she talking about, does she?
I brace myself for yet another episode of cringy falsehoods and an utterly stupid conversation as the interviewer states her question:
"The president of the Dutch Central Bank just said our money is safe, the banks were well prepared, so this is only a nuisance, but there's no real damage. Would you agree?"
"No."
"What? There isn't any damage, right?"
"Not right now. But these attacks are usually explorative attacks to find vulnerabilities. The real attacks are yet to come. I heard this morning some ATM's were already hacked, money was spat out and money mules were sent to collect the cash."
My eyebrows went up. What's this? This is not the normal 'go back to sleep people, nothing to see here' message the MSM usually tells the people, this is actually interesting...
"ATM's were hacked?? Did the Russians do this?"
"Maybe. Could have been the Russians, could have been some groups from Korea or Iran. Could have been some young intellectual group from around here even. We don't know. There were some Korean, Iranian and Russian codes found within the DDoS traffic, but that could also be a diversion."
What? This is actually a highly intelligent answer! I'm turning up the volume now, wanting to hear every word in this conversation.
"So what exactly is at risk here?"
"Well, they could target more ATM's. But if they manage to seize control of those, they could also try to go for the payment system itself. If they manage to seize control of the SWIFT system, the payment system itself, they could make any transaction they'd wish."
"This is a terrible threat! What measures should our banks have implemented to guarantee that these hackers cannot succeed?"
"There are no guarantees in cyber security. There is no cyber security company that delivers a guarantee with their digital security solutions. In a centralized system these things shall always be at risk."
"Is there absolutely nothing we can do about it? This sounds like a nightmare!!"
The shock on the interviewers face was priceless (yeah Mastercard pun intended). But the expert came back with a stonecold truth. Something shocking on Dutch television, an inconvenient message, but plain and simple:
"If you want to be safe, you should be looking into decentralized solutions, smart blockchain based alternatives to our current banking system. Those are near impossible to seize by groups with bad intentions."