Slashdot Mirror
Botnets As "eWMDs"
John Kelly writes "The current issue of Policy Review has a paper by an American computer scientist and the recent Permanent Undersecretary of Defense for Estonia. Drawing on the Estonian cyber attacks a year and a half ago, as well as other recent examples, they argue that botnets are the major problem. They propose that botnets should be designated as 'eWMDs' — electronic weapons of mass destruction. The paper also proposes a list of reforms that would help to limit the scale and impact of future botnet attacks, beginning with defining and outlawing spam, internationally." Many of the proposed solutions are common-sensical and won't be news to this audience, but it is interesting to see the botnet threat painted in such stark terms for readers of the Hoover Institution's Policy Review. For a more comprehensive overview of cyber-security threats, listen to NPR's interview with security experts on the occasion of the release of a new report, "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency," which recommends creating a cyber-security czar reporting to the President.
That would make botnets weapons of mass accumulation, not mass destruction. The quality might not be up to par but you can not complain about the quantity...
--frank[at]unternet.org
Yes, they must be destroyed.
All of them. Viva La Penguin!
You can't take the sky from me.
Am I the only one that had to read the "itsanebomb" tag multiple times before properly comprehending?
a) it sane bomb?
b) it's ane bomb?
c) it's a nebomb?
d) Oooohhhh... it's an e-bomb!
Pretty soon we're going to need a czar czar to keep track of all the czars we've been willing into existence lately.
Yeah, maybe not a city, but think about what would happen if they took WoW offline for more than an hour. Oh the horror!
Actually, an attack consisting of several simultaneous bombs in several areas of a city, combined with a systematic botnet attack of the major hospitals of the same city sounds quite evil...
..all of those doctors would be unable to properly bill for their services. Oh, the humanity!
The quality might not be up to par but you can not complain about the quantity...
No, I'm pretty sure that is what he's complaining about.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
An eWMD breaches security and launches actual WMD: Priceless.
Cl1ck H3rE for 5ive 5ree BOTTLES OF P0is0n gas!
Please stop stalking me, bro.
What, like elect Dubya twice?