Behind Cyberwar FUD 98
Nicola Hahn writes "The inevitable occurred this week as The Economist broached the topic of cyberwar with a couple of articles in its July 3rd issue. The first article concludes that 'countries should agree on more modest accords, or even just informal "rules of the road" that would raise the political cost of cyber-attacks.' It also makes vague references to 'greater co-operation between governments and the private sector.' When attribution is a lost cause (and it is), international treaties are meaningless because there's no way to determine if a participant has broken them. The second recommendation is even more alarming because it's using a loaded phrase that, in the past couple of years, has been wielded by those who advocate Orwellian solutions. The other article is a morass of conflicting messages. It presumes to focus on cyberwar, yet the bulk of the material deals with cybercrime and run-of-the-mill espionage. Then there's also the standard ploy of hypothetical scenarios: depicting how we might be attacked and what the potential outcome of these attacks could be. The author concludes with the ominous warning that terrorists 'prefer the gory theatre of suicide-bombings to the anonymity of computer sabotage — for now.' What's truly disturbing is that The Economist never goes beyond a superficial analysis of the topic to examine what's driving all of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (PDF), a subject dealt with in this Lockdown 2010 white paper."
Re:EVERY media outlet. (Score:1, Funny)
Bandwagons.... everyone has one.
Except for the Church of Scientology.
A-ha! A computer terminal! Mwhahahaha! (Score:5, Funny)
>Greetings Mr. President
>DOWNLOAD ALL SECRET FILES TO DISKETTE
Working....Done.
>DEORBIT SURVEILLANCE AND COMMUNICATION SATELLITES
Working...Done.
>TURN OFF NORTH AMERICAN POWER GRID
Working....D
.
Re:So you are taking Economist seriously. (Score:2, Funny)
So long as they're not blowing a vuvuzela, who cares.