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E-terrorism, Bark or Bite?
packeteer writes: "Huge multi-part article on CNET news about electronic terrorism. The article has some interesting scenarios about posible types of attacks. It also has some good info about whats being done to prevent attacks as well as some info about media-hype that's put on 'hackers'. Good read."
E-terrorism, FFS, does anybody DIE? No. Its not terrorism.
Yet the hyperbole about an Internet attack frequently overshadows common sense. On Sept. 11, it took less than 24 hours after four passenger jets were used as weapons of mass destruction for cries of cyberterrorism to emerge as the next great threat, triggering calls for new legislation to broaden the authority of law enforcement agencies.
This is exactly the problem. Something incredibly bad happens(9/11), and people look for something to blame. What's the biggest rage in the world right now? The Internet. But most people don't understand the internet, computers, and such. As such, the fact that it's a magic black box that is connected to everything means that it's a danger, and needs to be regulated. We need to stop these knee jerk reactions. I'm not saying that security should not be a concern, but all these calls to regulate the entire internet is blatenly irresponisble. Deregulation fosters growth, much the same as kids with tons of rules generally don't grow up to be extremely crazy thinkers. Stop trying to make anything you see into a scapegoat. The problem is not the internet, nor is it brown skinned people from the middle east. The problem is unenlightened human beings.
The comment was that e-terrorism may occur, but that there would be little loss of life. And I really wonder if the terrorists would attack the network themselves.
I would tend to think they would attack the source, which would attack the network indirectly. Like the comment about the tree falling on a power line and cutting off electricity for a while in an area.
Where I think there ought to be more concern is digital theft. Oddly enough we always hear about young hackers breaking into a network and getting caught. Please tell me where the older hackers are? Since I doubt that there are no older hackers. UNLESS, they are successful and do not get caught. Those are the folks that we need to be scared about in digital terms.
Nut balls like Bin Laden I think are more concerned with killing and general mayhem and anarchy. Sure they may use technology, but that is not their main focus. And I really think that Bin Laden's strength is not high tech, but low tech and sheer simplicity. Like using a plane as a missle. Who would have thought it? What scares me about nut balls like him is that he uses our free societies against us!
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
leet hacker: "I could break into your traffic light control system over the Internet and make the lights go green in both directions."
leet traffic light manufacturer: "No you couldn't."
leet hacker: "Why not?"
leet traffic light manufacturer: "Because we have protection in place. Relays physically prevent power being supplied to both red and green lights in opposing directions at the same time."
leet hacker: "What is the response time of those relays? What if I hacked your box and strobed the lights so fast that they appeared to be still lit?"
leet traffic light manufacturer: "Ah....."
if you provoke, scandalize and create hype about E-Terrorism ;)
E-terrorism! Please, take my first amendment rights away so we can fight off this plague!
Remember Y2K!
Remember the hype!
Remember the scare!
Don't trust the mainstream media's portrayal of anything related to computers because the mainstream media is created by and targetted towards a very large group of people who do not understand computers. I don't think I need to explain how people tend to fear what they don't understand.
Let's think for just a moment. If the internet were to be completely shutdown or even unplugged, do you really think that we will be in such desperate straights as to be terrorized? Sure, for a few wierdos, no Slasdot access may be terrifying. But, for the rest of the world it would mean little. It would mean an inconvenience to many, perhaps a slowdown for commerce and indeed an end to some businesses based on crappy business models. But nothing more.
;)
No dams will open, killing millions. No planes will fall from the sky. Your head will not explode. Your funds will not disappear from the bank.
Try to remember that the internet is not a life giving force. It is not a life support system and it's disappearance will not take away life. Well, perhaps it is to eBay and Amazon but, when we are talking terror on a national of global scale they aren't much cause for concern.
I mean, so what if the internet goes down? It's not like the Seatle Starbucks running out of coffee or something serious like that. Now, that would be real terror.
The wors case scenario I could see would be an attack on the communication szstem coupled with an attack on another massive attack.
The standard phone network could be attacked in a way that could hamper emergency response, as could the 911 centers. Additionally, if one here to hit the internet, the ability of informaiton to circulate immediately would be reduced, thus increasing the level of uncertainty that the terrorism seeks to create.
Your power plants, air trafic control systems, etc. are hard enough to hack that they fall into the realm of diminishing returns (like chemical attacks) which are much more expensive to pull off than a comparably damaging attack on the communications network.
Or here is another scenario-- hacking Wall Street and hampering the trading of stocks (think about the economic damage of that one).
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Any real terrorist organization will always find it easier to place a truckload of C4 outside a dam and hit the button than to break into the computer and open the floodgates. It is not "easy" for "just anyone" to break into these systems. I would worry more about vulnerable computers controlling these sites being taken out by one of the far-too-many script kiddies, by accident. After all, there are many more script kiddies than terrorists. Realizing his find, some 15-year jackass in New York opens the floodgates of Hoover Dam and kills a million people just for the hell of it, then goes and wanks off with the porn in his other window. Kids these days. But suffice it to say, I'm not too worried about that either.
What terrorists could do is take most of the internet down with a Warhol or Flash worm, which could be done by terrorists and would take out all vulnerable computers in about a minute. While not killing anyone, this would be horrible for the economy.
Just my $0.02
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.