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Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow
Kobalt writes "A few news services are reporting that Russian computer expert, Aleksandr Gostev from Kaspersky Labs, has predicted that a large chunk of the Internet will be shut down tomorrow by cyber terrorists."
Armed with this foreknowledge, what can we do besides wait and see what happens? One of TFAs stated that there's really nothing we can do to defend against the attack, so what's the point in worrying about it? Either it will happen, and folks in the US and Western Europe will be inconvenienced, or it won't happen, and we'll all have worried for nothing. At this point, it seems like this knowledge, while nice to have, is somewhat useless.
Also, why tomorrow? Wouldn't it send a more powerful message to wait a few weeks and do it on September 11th?
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I've personally become entirely jaded by the term 'terrorist'. I've heard it used to describe just about everything that the speaker wants to scare you into believing.
Officials of foreign governments are now terrorists, drinking a Pepsi at the Olympics is "advertising terrorism", etc.
As Reagan said; one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
Don't jump to conclusions too quickly... The chances that somebody, somewhere on the planet is experiencing Internet-related problems on the same day as this was announced is pretty much 100%. It just so happens that you're the guy with the problems. Doesn't necessarily mean anything.
If the Internet is your livelyhood, then the threat of being shutdown or defaced (thereby damaging your company's reputation) is very real. While it is not life-threatening, a successful cyber attack could be very distruptive. If, for example, someone was able to shut down a large percentage of the Internet, what effect could that have on the US economy? It would not take long for serious repercussions on a world-wide scale due to loss of productivity.
No, they are not terrorists in threatening people's lives, but if they can prove that they can hit the economy, they accomplish the same goal: to create fear. Remember, one of the goals of 9/11 was not just to kill people but to hurt the US economy. Is this something to be worried about? What kind of wide-spread damage could a "cyber-terrorist" cause on the Internet?
BTW, I realize that this was a mis-quote, but it does bring up interesting questions.
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Hrm... but what about those instances where loss of the internet will increase productivity? For instance, I should be doing work right now...what if there's an interesting balance that happens (no internet hurts some folks, but helps others) such that the net effect is zero? And what's more important - net effect or effect for a given individual?
Now there's a philosophical mind-bender...
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
When Communism fell and left Capitalism triumphant (apart from China, North Korea, Cuba...) it left a bogeyman vacuum, which didn't matter much as long as everyone was ranting about felacio in the Oral^H^H^H^H Oval Office. But now we're marketing a new Bad Guy (TM) that's just like the rest of us, only doesn't like Authority... convenient.
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Why is this a story? Seriously... This is pure BS. You KNOW tomorrow will come and go and nothing will happen.
Might as well report that the Apocalypse is supposed to happen sometime between 7 PM and 12 AM on Friday.
Personally, I hope it does happen. There hasn't really been any interesting attacks since Code Red. I'm always looking forward to what attackers will come up with next.
If they could actually cause a "meltdown", then that would be purely amazing.
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The term "terrorist" has been applied just as much as former terms to try and convey a sense of evil and hate from the speaker to the recipient. The words "communist" and "nazi" are older examples, and are pretty much interchangeable unless the listener is actually what I call "informed".