Obama's Portrait of Cyberwar Isn't Complete Hyperbole

pigrabbitbear writes "It's hard to imagine what cyberwarfare actually looks like. Is it like regular warfare, where two sides armed with arsenals of deadly weapons open fire on each other and hope for total destruction? What do they fire instead of bullets? Packets of information? Do people die? Or is it not violent at all — just a bunch of geeks in uniforms playing tricks on each other with sneaky code? Barack Obama would like to clear up this question, thank you very much. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal the president voiced his support for the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 now being considered by the Senate with the help of a truly frightening hypothetical: 'Across the country trains had derailed, including one carrying industrial chemicals that exploded into a toxic cloud,' Obama wrote, describing a nightmare scenario of a cyber attack. 'Water treatment plants in several states had shut down, contaminating drinking water and causing Americans to fall ill.' All because of hackers!"

Comments

Re:Bankers are worse than hackers.

[oh_my_080980980]

Let's see he took out Osama Bin Ladin who is responsible for deaths of 2,996 Americans.

There is no political will to take on the Financial Services Industry. It's not simply the President, it's Congress as well.

You're conflating national security with corporate malfeasance. The two are not the same.

Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking..

[techno-vampire]

He didn't change a fucking thing,

Actually, he did. There's been a lot of change in the last three years: all for the worse. Three years ago, he told us that if he didn't get the economy moving again and people back to work he'd not be re-elected. All I have to say now is, "From his mouth to God's ears!"