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After ISIS, Americans Fear Cyberattacks Most (theatlantic.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According to Pew Research Center, there's an increasingly growing fear among Americans about cyberattacks. In fact, it's the second most feared entity to them, the first being ISIS. The terrorist group is scary by design, relying on propaganda videos and ultra-violent attacks to spread fear and project power. But coming in second right after the terrorist group was the prospect of country-on-country cyberwar: a digital raid to steal another government's information, for example, or a large-scale attack on a nation's electrical grid. Cyberattacks are a major threat in the minds of 72 percent of Americans, and a minor threat to another 22 percent. Cyberwar hasn't been on Americans' minds to this degree since 2013. That year, for the first time, Americans ranked cyberattacks as a top threat, placing it second after the threat from Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda. But in the intervening years, Americans turned their attention to nuclear threats.
Seriously, who holds ISIS as their top fear? The overwhelming majority of Americans will literally never be within a couple thousand miles of ISIS at any time in their lives. Yeah, ISIS is really really awful but their ability to actually harm people here in the states is so very close to zero that they might as well not exist. American citizens are more likely to be harmed by a chicken sandwich in most cases.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Not for us in the US anyway. The best they can hope for is to make a few 'lone wolf' attacks here and there. It's an interesting psychological phenomenon that people are so afraid of something bad happening at random, despite the odds of it happening being incredibly small (and dwarfed by other more common things such as auto accidents).
ISIS poses very little threat to the average American, but the beast we're feeding to keep us "safe" from them is a bigger danger. Even though I know I'm not doing anything wrong, I always tend to get a little nervous whenever there's a cop behind me. You never know when you're going to get pulled over & harassed for having the wrong bumper sticker on your car.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Why don't Americans fear their own government most?
To the average American the cops are far more dangerous.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
the IRS, NSA, and Hillary/Trump are not valid values.
Cyberattacks are not an entity.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
Looks like US lifestyle is the winner -
Heart disease: 614,348
Cancer: 591,699
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
Alzheimer's disease: 93,541
Diabetes: 76,488
Influenza and pneumonia: 55,227
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,146
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773
Let's get back to the 50's and 60's when alien abduction and the dreaded anal probe were the things to fear. That an nuclear annihilation and communist dominos.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The world is absolutely crazy today, what with violent crime being absurdly low and humanity not living seconds away from full blown nuclear war between two superpowers.
Blame cable news and social media.
Thich Nhat Hanh recommends turning off the news. If it's really important, you'll hear about it.
When I heard about ISIS - or IS - or whatever it's called the first time, I looked it up. I discovered they are some nuts in the Middle East using religion as justification for their actions and that they are no threat to us.
And that's that.
Does it make me misinformed? I don't know nor do I care. See, whatever IS/IS is dong doesn't effect me, I can't do anything about it and it is pointless to worry about them.
Now, while my neighbors were all worried about the threat du jour on cable news, the local professional ball team got my local government to pony up a few hundred million dollars for a sports stadium and added a special tax all based on pie in the sky "projections" on how much business and tax revenues that new stadium will bring in. No one really knew about it because cable news doesn't cover things that REALLY affect our lives.
The billionaire team owner gets a free stadium and we little people got screwed. But hey! ISIS may come and get us!
Distractions. All of it. News - Infotainment.
Garbage.
ISIS launching CyberAttacks!!!
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
What I fear most is Hillary somehow reaching the White House.
than any other govt. The only thing I fear more than my govt. is the population that voted that government into power. And all that fear would fit on the head of a pin.
Here's my biggest anxiety. Its kinda overwhelming because it constantly is reminding me of it self.
I just switched to google chrome from safari and firefox after those two kept giving me the spinning wheel of eternal delay. But now all of a sudden everything I google is showing up as a freaking ad. the exact parts for my bike every where I go. I feel like I'm being followed. I try logging out of my google account but no matter. And when I log into my computer at work-- a totally separate machine-- wham there they are again.
this is what is freaking me out. Gonna try opera I think. they have intrinsic ad blocking. But I figure this just means every url I go to is stored on some chinese military server.
How can I get a browser that can still do auto-suggest but has a less creepy mothership policy? if I point my search engine to duck-duck go will the auto-suggest go there too? or does it have a different home? Is there a privacy conscious DNS?
Help I'm freaking out! I actually think this is a better fear than ISIS
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
And this goes to show you that Americans are afraid of crap they see on CNN and Fox News.
You are significantly more likely to get killed going to your mailbox than you are to get killed by any form of terrorism.
If you were really afraid of cyberterrorism, you'd be more cautious about what links you open.
In Wisconsin 2 year olds with guns kill more people than ISIS. And there are only a handful of things I won't mention that I fear more than Cyber Attacks.
"the first being ISIS. The terrorist group is scary by design, relying on propaganda videos and ultra-violent attacks to spread fear and project power."
The self same ISIS that US policy effectively incubated in the Middle East. link
Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention. I thought weirdos using the wrong bathroom what what I was supposed to be scared of this week.
Seriously though... Terrorists? That's what keeps you up at night? I'm more worried about the idiot driving next to me on his cell phone, or the list of 2000 other things that are more likely to personally affect my life. #2000 is something like "I wonder how nasty it is going to be behind my stove when I have to replace it." #2001 is probably "I need a new stove." Terrorism isn't even a blip on the radar. Maybe I'm naive, but I've got other shit to worry about right now.
I'll bet Americans fear losing their jobs a lot more than ISIS or cyberattacks. Second, they probably fear having a family member get sick and having to pay 40% of their annual salary to a health care system that has sucked ever since health insurance companies were de-regulated decades ago.
Fear is relative. An economy built on wage slavery needs to keep people afraid.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'd definitely say Daesh is #2. Computer security is a critical thing people should be worried about since we have a perfect storm here:
1: China protects their interests with the Great Firewall. This doesn't just get used for censorship, but stops international attacks cold. Chinese businesses then don't have to worry as much stuff getting to their virtual front door, compared to US companies that have no protection whatsoever.
2: A lot of US companies have "security has no ROI" as a belief. They just are financially uninterested in anything to do with security, as "the only person that ever makes money from a lock is the lock maker."
3: There are no penalties for getting hacked. Hackers don't destroy data, so backup systems are not needed. A firm in China doing the same thing? Doesn't matter... that's not this quarter. PII? Throw people some Lifelock subscriptions, say security has been increased, and stock prices will be unchanged. The -only- thing companies might be afraid of is PCI-DSS, and even with that, massive hacks still don't mean loss of merchant IDs.
4: People don't want to air-gap. They want it NOW, hell with security. I've seen this with SCADA systems, and management ports.
I am absolutely surprised that there hasn't been a major loss of life yet.
Want to know how to fix it?
1: Demand a "UL" like company and inspections for IoT devices. Not something like RVIA which is just part of the industry, but a real third party that does proper security testing, with source code in hand.
2: Don't buy insecure devices. The responsibility lies with the user and buyer, ultimately. That smart TV? Pass it by for something more secure.
3: Do basic computer sanitation. Have backups, use 2FA when possible, and so on.
4: Move to OSS, so security problems can be fixed and patched in minutes, not have to wait a month for a cycle to happen.
...is automobiles.
~100 Americans die in auto accidents every day.
(I think recent numbers are closer to 90.)
Any time I hear about some new thing that I'm supposed to be afraid of, I ask, Is it killing 100 American a day, *every* *day*?
And if it isn't, then I get in my car, and I *fasten my seat belt*, and I don't worry about it too much.
I've heard that zombies outbreak is exactly what Americans fear most.
Our first enemy in life is fear, followed by clarity, power and old age. It seems most never overcome their first enemy.
This terror bullshit is getting way out of hand. By likelihood of death, they should be deathly afraid of Wendy's and Jack in the Box rather. Or their general practitioner.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
should be more worried about actual threats like people stealing online stuff and viruses and malware. That happens every day, millions of records here and there stolen.
I expect I'll probably get killed by some old woman driving into me while texting with one hand, applying makeup with the other, and eating a Big Mac with her foot. That's my biggest fear. ISIS ranks somewhere below getting eaten by a shark - in Missouri.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
"You can blow my brains out, just don't take away my TwitterBook!"
Table-ized A.I.
But in the intervening years, Americans turned their attention to nuclear threats.
"Don't forget about me!! I'm...so...ronery..."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
your own stupidity has a much better chance of killing you dumb fuckers than ISIS. Most of you never even leave your own state let alone go someplace ISIS can get at you.
AMERICA #1 home of the chick hawk pussy!
More Americans have died from toddlers with guns than by terrorists
We should lock up our children ;)
Tv shows like 'NCIS', 'Scorpion' and 'CSI: Cyber' aren't there just to trot out the usual lies: Armed police are the good guys, no matter what crimes they commit; if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear; you have to prove your innocence. They're there to declare "you're the victim, on a computer" and you need the police to save you.
By a pure coincidence there is a 100% correlation between threats that are the most covered in mass media and fear.
It's like journalists always know perfectly well what exactly the public fears the most.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
after ISIS, the power elite are going to throw cybercrime down our throats to justify stripping us of our rights, to emplace pervasive surveillance legally, and make whistleblowing and investigative journalism something only in the history books.
Is it not possible to have a truly secure OS?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
The 2 biggest threats to YOU, where you are right now, are Fukushima and GM food. Nothing else comes close.
Astro
Honestly what DON'T Americans fear?
with some honesty
it would not be isis or some other bullshit, the number one answer would be "the nigros", and we all KNOW IT
go ahead, censor this comment
You can drop ISIS and cyberwar.
The correct headline should be "America Fears!"
Because we haven't been brave or willing to sacrifice for a long time now.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Terrorists and cyber attacks are mere symptoms of the underlying root causes. Yet, there is a different perspective: It is the Corporatocracy that should be feared and mitigated. It is the actions of large corporations and banks that cause the need for good folks to turn to terrorism of any kind. If an entity worked to thwart you out of your home and resources, what would YOU do?
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
In no particular order.
Expel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... from your country
Casteism