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Obama's Portrait of Cyberwar Isn't Complete Hyperbole

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-mostly dept.

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!"

10 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Who cleans up by codepigeon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I keep wondering who will be responsible for cleaning up the thousands or millions of pc's that get infected (or re-infected) years after a "cyber" war is over. I have never heard an answer to that.

    1. Re:Who cleans up by pr0t0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That will fall to people like you and me. Do you have what it takes? Remember, service guarantees citizenship.

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  2. Complete, as in 100% Complete? by rot26 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obama's Portrait of Cyberwar Isn't Complete Hyperbole

    No, it's only 99.8% hyperbole. Someone has calculated the half-life of the current set of "crises", and decided that we need another urgent problem to address.

    --



    To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
    1. Re:Complete, as in 100% Complete? by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh for crying out loud. Stuxnet managed to damage equipment and all but shut down a nuclear weapons research program, and that was attacking secured PCs that were on a closed network. Do you have any idea how poor security is at your communities local infrastructure? If a single virus, by all accounts written by no more than a half dozen people over the course of a year, can do significant damage to a secured computer network, why is it ridiculous to imagine that a foreign nation could shut down water treatment plants at dozens of places in the US? Please explain, what exactly is the difference between programming a centrifuge to spin at a rate outside it's safety margin and programming a rail switching station to reroute trains randomly?

  3. I have an answer!!!1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have an answer . . . MyCleanPC!!!1! I just installed it on my PC and I'm re++--_#*$NO CARRIER

  4. Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Obama does a good job of facilitating thinking..."

    And I can't say that. At all. I'd be lying.

    This is nothing but fear-mongering to sucker people into increasing the power of the federal gov't. "Oh but it won't be used in that way"... since when has that EVER been true?

  5. Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking.. by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Obama does a good job of scaring the shit out of people and saying, "Let the government be the solution. Let us spy on your web habits via your ISP, and your cellphone via tracking. And oh yeah, we've decided to expand the TSA's mission to busstops, train stations, along highways, and at pulic facilties like malls and hotels."

    In that respect he's a hell-of-lot-smarter than George "duh" Bush but ultimately it's the same fucked-up destination. Let both the (D) and (R) president burn in hell.

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  6. Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking.. by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Informative

    >>>Strawman. Stop using them.

    There's no strawman. Obama really has expanded the TSA to busstops, train depots, post offices, et cetera. It's not my fault you don't keep-up with the news and remain unaware of that fact.

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    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  7. Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking.. by Johann+Lau · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How so? Obama came into office on "hope" & "change", and he just helped consolidate the police state Bush kicked off even more. Oh, and he went from torture to "kill lists", and he payed banks for being too greedy for their own good. He didn't change a fucking thing, he just lubed it up for you, all nice and sophisticated and bullshit-y.

    No, all he (well, his handlers) did was pulling one on you, and you just sit there and celebrate it with empty phrases like "he facilitated thinking". For fucks sake? What does that even mean? Your BRAIN would facilitate thinking, IF you had one.

    I'm pretty sure they simply implemented the same policies that are chugging along all the time, anyway, and this time with the diction of Tuvok instead of dumb smirks.

  8. Re:Obama does of good job of faciliting thinking.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cyber "war" is just applied mathematics. Get it right, and you're untouchable.

    This is completely backward. Infosec is actually applied anthropology. Humans will get the math wrong. They will get the design, the implementation, the policies, the procedures, the operation wrong. Security is about assuming mistakes will be made and overlapping protections to the extent that the impact of those inevitable fuck-ups is minimized.