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Politically Motivated Cyber Attacks

Orome1 writes "According to a new report, 53 percent of critical infrastructure providers report that their networks have experienced what they perceived as politically motivated cyber attacks. Participants of the Symantec survey claimed to have experienced such an attack on an average of 10 times in the past five years, incurring an average cost of $850,000 during a period of five years to their businesses. Participants from the energy industry reported that they were best prepared for such an attack, while participants from the communications industry reported that they were the least prepared."

9 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. No conflict of interest at all by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't see any problems when a company that sells "security" releases data about the bad terrible things that can happen to you if you don't have the appropriate "security".

    And when Merck says Vioxx is safe, we must trust them.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:No conflict of interest at all by postbigbang · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's a difference between observation, criticism, and DDoS. Concerted efforts to stifle information-- no matter what the information is-- are onerous attacks on everyone who wants the same right to voice their own.

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      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  2. I'll post the obvious.... by AnonymousClown · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Critical infrastructure providers represent industries that are of such importance either to a nation’s economy or society that if their cyber networks were successfully attacked and damaged, the result would threaten national security.

    WTF are "critical infrastructure providers" doing by connecting their critical systems to the internet?

    If they need to connect plants or other things, leased lines aren't an option?

    --
    RIP America

    July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001

  3. Re:Terrorism is a result of failed democracy by AnonymousClown · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Real democracy will only come when we apply the principles of free software [metagovernment.org] to government.

    You don't live somewhere with a Home Owners Association, do you? Getting people to participate is nearly impossible even when it results in there being a lot of money levied on them. People would rather do other things. They hardly get out to vote.

    And you actually think something like Metagovernment will work?!? Talk about a pipe dream!

    --
    RIP America

    July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001

  4. Predicted Future news: by Even+on+Slashdot+FOE · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Politically motivated cyber attack reports are spun into support for new laws bringing the US up to speed with the most draconian technology laws in the world - provide your password or go to jail forever, prove that the drawing is of an adult, and even prove that you have never interacted with anyone who has committed these cyber-crimes or go to jail by association!

  5. Re:Terrorism is a result of failed democracy by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do you really think that every minority interest group is going to be happy with the consensus of the majority all the time, every time? You talk about the 'principles of free software' as a panacea, ignoring that the free software movement has the same problems. Some person or minority of persons gets upset with decisions made by a larger group of core developers for a project, and what happens? Fork. The only way that government can fork is by 'segregating people' whether done by geography (which is the most logistically accommodating) or by some as-yet-untried model such as panarchism (which would be a logistical nightmare).

    The fact about humans is that you can never please all of the people all of the time. No matter how reasonable a given consensus is, there will always be a minority that feels otherwise, and because there are always a few people playing without a full deck, an even smaller subset of a given minority may be emotional enough to think it's worth killing over. That's not a 'failure of democracy', that's life. Deal with it.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  6. Cyber Terrorism = Cyber Warfare. by elucido · · Score: 2

    It's a war. This is not new. Just look at whats going on with Cryptome being hacked in the name of Bradley Manning. I would say ideology is a strong motivator for hacking.

  7. Politicians have no real power. by elucido · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Politicians have the illusion of power by signature. The real power are the intelligence agencies that bribe and blackmail politicians into doing their bidding. The real power are the corporations funding the lobbyists who do the bribery, or in some cases the journalists and private investigators who do the blackmail, so lets face it every politician basically reads their script and is like a celebrity.

    They go on TV and read a teleprompter. They sign what they are told to sign. Their controllers write their bills, the politicians don't read anything and just sign off on whatever their controllers make them sign off too. Since the average American citizen isn't in control of anything, the foreign national has more control over the political process than the average American citizen, whether it be hacking the voting machine or bribing the politician.

    At least if there are cyber warriors the voting machines wont have to be hacked.

  8. Re:Terrorism is a result of failed democracy by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Terrorism happens whenever people no longer trust the political process... to give the result they want. If a person presses position X, but sees that not-X is more popular and thus X has no hope of becoming law, then they may see violence as justified. For examples see environmental terrorism on the left, or pro-life terrorism on the right.