Is the Cyberterror Threat Credible?

Scott Pinzon writes "Is the idea that cyber terrorists might take down US networks or utilities realistic, or over-hyped? One of the authors of the Patriot Act and several Black Hat 2005 speakers debated the issue informally at WatchGuard's "Security and Beer Roundtable." Participants include Dan Kaminsky, Johnny "Google Hacker" Long, Tim Mullen, Sensepost penetration testers, a guy from Microsoft's ISA team, and others."

Comments

like '%Cyber%'

[NineNine]

Personally, I don't feel in any way threatened by any word, phrase, or sentence with the prefix "cyber" in it. Cyber*, to me, means a way for non-geeks to explain something that they don't in any way understand.

Keep the govt out. Decentralize security.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Bush administration has been warning of a digital Pearl Harbor for years.

However, their desire to collect and to centralize information on government computers for 'homeland security' purposes makes such a threat more dangerous, not less dangerous.

If their proposals for government-accessible backdoors for all encryption were actually to become reality, then a single successful hacker could compromise millions of secure computers and documents in a single attack.

The best solution is to go back to the policies of Clinton's presidency. Let us, the people, take care of our own security without government intrusion, as is our natural right and privilege.