FACING DISASTERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY CHALLENGE

IDEA: Forming an International Malicious Code Protection Agency(IMCA).

DISASTER: A malicious code that causes critical systems to malfunction.

AREA: Disaster Preparedness.

PERSONAL DETAILSNAME: SAMMY KAMUNGE WANJIRUSCHOOL: EGERTON UNIVERSITYCOUNTRY: KENYA

The Disaster I envision?

‘A code that makes mission critical computer systems to malfunction is written by one state, this state declares war with other nations and manages to infect the mission critical systems

of the army of the other nations and computer controlled magnetic trains. The results into the malfunctioning of these

systems and causes horrendous accidents’.

The situation...

Countries like China have introduced computer controlled magnetic trains.

Countries like America have war drones that are controlled by computer systems in a central location.

THE REALITY ON THE GROUND(There were rumours that during the Iraq vs America war, a

malicious code found its way into one of the computers through a flash disk dropped in the wash rooms by enemies and it caused the communication systems to be jammed for a while but luckily they were able to clean their systems).

The Disaster unfolding....

If ill minded programmers come up with a code that can cause the systems that control this mission critical systems to malfunction, it can lead to a major disaster.

• Imagine a drone loosing control and dropping the bomb in the middle of a city!!! This will translate into thousands of deaths and injuries.

My solution to this Disaster!

- Preparedness We should set up an International Malicious

Code Protection Agency whose mandate is to monitor the malicious codes that pop up all over the world each and every day.

The plan of implementation

We should make it compulsory for every professional programmer to sign a code of good conduct and make it illegal for anyone to write malicious code with the enactment of stringent penalties to those found guilty.

The International Malicious Code Protection

Association should guide nations and organizations on the disaster preparedness procedures in order to avert the occurrence of this disaster.

Effectiveness of the solution…

The International Malicious Code Protection Association will keep the authorities charged with the responsibility of managing this mission critical systems alert.

This is because any leniency by those operating this mission critical systems can lead to an adverse outcome if this disaster occurs.

Innovativeness of this solution…

Presently individual countries/states have their own regulations regarding Malicious codes with some having no regulations at all and there are no international bodies mandated to ensure no nation comes up with malicious codes or funds projects to generate malicious codes. Coming up with a single international body will integrate the efforts of the Individual nations and create a common policy/level ground for all countries.

THE OUTCOME….

With such an international body coming into existence to manage the malicious codes being written knowingly, it will be very hard for any nation, organization or individual to manipulate the existing mission critical systems since the organizations overseeing these systems will be forced to be alert and on top of their game every time.

No double standards will be practiced since the more advanced nations in terms of programming know how will be restrained from manipulating the inefficiencies of ‘not so advanced nations’.

Application in real life

This idea will work in real life since with every passing day more and more computer controlled systems are being adapted by organizations. This systems are nothing but millions of written codes that are executed to cause the desired action by the machine. This codes can be manipulated to cause adverse outcomes and sometimes disasters where weapons of mass destruction are involved or public means of transport are involved.