group which is believed to have been behind a number of high profile hacks targeting us companies. separately, ukraine has accused russia of being behind a large scale cyber attack, that hit numerous government websites. the nato secretary general, jens stoltenberg, has condemned the cyber attack. let s speak now to 2 2 now to 2 2 chris krebs, cyber policy expert and former director of the cybersecurity and infrastruture security agency, under president donald trump. just briefly please update us on who they are and what they did to upset they are and what they did to upset the us. ~ , ., . ., the us. well revil is a criminal read somewhere the us. well revil is a criminal read somewhere that - the us. well revil is a criminal read somewhere that operatesj read somewhere that operates predominantly out of russia. they are predominantly responsible for the most impactful attacks this past
business leaders and former u.s. government officials have a stark warning about the threat of cyber attacks. we ve already seen and felt the impact of several high profile hacks in 2020, when russian hackers breached u.s. federal agencies and attack and compromised as many as 14 technology firms. here in the u.s. southeast, there were long lines at gas stations when a ransomware attack shut down colonial pipeline, and more recently facebook says it exposed a vast network of surveillance for hire firms. the parent company meta claims they were using hacking tools and hundreds of fake personas to monitor journalists, dissidents and politicians around the world. and earlier this weeks, the fed chairman jerome powell had this to say, when asked about potential stability risks. the risk of a successful cyber attack is, for me, you know, always the most, one that
times. in a statement, tribune said the company continues the diagnosis and remediation of the malware that affected a portion of the back office systems used to publish and produce newspapers. it s just the latest in a series of high profile hacks in 2018. targeting companies like t-mobile, google and orbitz. facebook revealing nearly 50 million of its users were hacked, attackers gaining access to their facebook accounts and other accounts linked to them. one involved marriott s star wood hotel chain with half a billion customers personal information stolen by hackers over a four year period. what should you do if you re hacked? notify your bank or credit card company and determine the extent of the damage, even if you re not hacked, the personal data is still vulnerable. when it comes to your name, date of birth, chances are numerous hacking organizations have it because they ve broken into companies that store it. what can you do to prevent being hacked?
we re only ten years since its invention. i would say that we are equivalent to the internet in 1991, and if you remember, it took years until the internet took off. you mentioned the block chain a couple of times as a fundamental technology, the bedrock to bitcoin, if you will. i guess my question, as you talk about the technology being really, really, you know, advanced, if you will, is this issue of security that i keep coming up with, as i read about bitcoin. this truth, if you will, that having several high profile hacks. so i guess how secure is it? bitcoin is incredible secure. so to send value from a to b, bitcoin can t be beat. it s the equivalent of wiring money from one bank to another or a bank to you. bitcoin cannot be beat. the problem is the edges. for instance, your wallet could be hacked if someone got ahold
hack attacks not from the i.r.s. say, a health insurer, with a number of high profile hacks in the last year or so. they are using that information or they are buying and selling it and they are going on to the i.r.s. site because they have this information to fool the i.r.s. because the i.r.s. has been pretty successful in stopping some of the scams. thank you is a much more sophisticated and organized type of plot than just one person in the basement trying to do this? is there a group maybe in russia or the russian mob organized crime or others? absolutely. definitely organized crime. that is how you think of this. essentially, you have credit reporting agencies that are criminal. they have as much information about you as a credit reporting agency would have. again, this is taking it to an entirely different level. you really have to be much more careful. there are some things. what can we do?