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After ISIS, Americans Fear Cyberattacks Most (theatlantic.com)

Posted by msmash on from the cyberattack-woes dept.

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.

62 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Who are these people they are talking with? by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by jmv · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches

      --
      Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
    2. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches.

      When chicken sandwiches are outlawed, only outlaws will have chicken sandwiches.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    3. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly. This may come off as tinfoil-hat a bit but I personally believe its the government forcing the media (or the media just being complicit in) to wage a propaganda campaign that paints these terrorists as the most feared entity in america. If the headlines say "Americans all fear ISIS", any person reading that might just assume it to be true. Its a way of spreading fear and the idea that everyone else is afraid as well. Its paving the road ahead for future wars in the middle east paid for by our desire to assuage those fears, even if they never really existed. Its a way to remind the american people that terrorism is out there and its still the big bad boogie-man that the gov would like as all to be as afraid of as possible.

    4. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      It's particularly weird given how genuinely common some fairly unpleasant things are. Population-wide, an American has a ~40% chance of developing some flavor of cancer at some point in their life. And you want to worry about ISIS?

      At least 'cyber attacks' are(in their mild form) actually pretty plausible, since low-level account hackery and financially motivated crime happen more or less continually; but people seem to have a bizarre fixation on mediagenic risks that are absurdly tiny compared to the ones that will be much more likely to kill them, make them suffer, drive them to bankruptcy, etc.

    5. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by Sperbels · · Score: 4, Informative

      Have you listened to talk radio in the 20 years? They create fear. It is a gigantic propaganda engine that the media is indeed complicit in...because fear sells like hotcakes.

    6. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by zlives · · Score: 1

      that must be why the f-35 is getting such rave reviews.

    7. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      I personally know no one that fears either of those things they list was this a multiple choice poll and was spiders a choice? I think spiders would rank fairly high also.

      I'm guessing they didn't poll any of my neighbors this week otherwise the answer might have been some thing like the very real and close threat of tornadoes and other life threatening and property damaging severe weather.

    8. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm curious where the U.S. government rated on the list of things most feared.
      If it wasn't on the list at all, then I have to call the list bogus.

      Liberals fear it to be taken over by the military.
      Conservatives fear it to be taken over by socialists.
      Those from out side the United States fear it because it's The U.S. government.

      The one thing we all have in common is that we fear the U.S. government.

    9. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      People who watch the news believe ISIS is one of the most important issues in the world, even though it will never affect them.

      --
      Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
    10. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      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.

      Well, *someone* has to be voting for Trump...

    11. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Come on. Take the F-22. This is 13 (thirTEEN) more Fs than that.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    12. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by zlives · · Score: 1

      fffffffffffffuck

    13. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by SumterLiving · · Score: 1

      In my little redneck part of the woods, the sheriff and his lead deputy talk about how scary the ISIS threat is to the county and I suspect the country too. They talk about it in the open so it's not a secret to the people who elect them. I use to laugh but now the election is forthwith and I have to pick between the bat-shit crazy guy in a white shirt or bat-shit crazy guy in a green shirt. Either way, a bat-shitty sheriff will be elected in Nov 2016. And while they are keeping the eyes pealed for ISIS, a bunch of yahoos with guns and a bat-shit crazy idea will come marching into town and tell us they are looking out for my freedom while taking over a government building. I'm more scared of the sheriff or likely sheriff than I am of ISIS. But my iPhone is encrypted so I'm safe ... I hope. Until then at least I'm cancer free and ISIS free.

    14. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      People who watch the news believe ISIS is one of the most important issues in the world, even though it will never affect them.

      I will say it is important to distinguish between important and fear-worthy. I am vastly more afraid of Donald Trump than I am of ISIS. However both are important world issues, yet only one can legitimately have a significant impact on my life - and it isn't ISIS. Although they have very different ideologies, I would put ISIS and North Korea on roughly equal footing in terms of important world issues. Similarly neither has much of any ability to directly impact my life.

      That said if each candidate for POTUS announced detailed plans tomorrow for countering ISIS, those plans likely would not change my voting in November unless one specifically called for me to be sent out personally to fight them. I'll say that sounds highly unlikely as I am well above the maximum age selected in the Vietnam draft and I don't have any useful combat experience.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    15. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      The only appropriate plan for "countering ISIS" is to stop engaging in meddling abroad.

      --
      Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
    16. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by quenda · · Score: 1

      Better at least, a fake war to keep the masses in fear and in line than a real war.

    17. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      There is a solid argument for letting it run itself out and telling the world to fuck off. However, there is also the fact that our actions created ISIS; particularly our invasion of Iraq but other shitty foreign policy decisions in that part of the world as well. So really, it is our mess. Maybe we can make an argument against cleaning it up, but I'm not convinced.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    18. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      I would argue that the fact that "we" created the mess proves that we are incapable of cleaning it up. At the very least I would certainly argue that more of the same thing is only going to create more mess and certainly isn't going to clean anything up.

      --
      Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
    19. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      ISIS is not my top fear, but at least let 9/11 should have taught us a lesson: to not be so smug and complacent again. Who thought Al Qaeda was any kind of serious threat to the US homeland before then either? Turns out it's really fairly easy to kill a lot of people, you don't need a lot of expensive, hard to get military ordnance to do it, just a sick but creative mind and some patience.
      ISIS is not just staying put in the Levant region, they're already spreading to parts of Africa and elsewhere, and eventually they will have cells over here if they don't already. Sure, they won't ever have a large mass of fighters over here, but as we've seen, a few twisted bastards can do a lot of damage. And what bothers people more than say, choking deaths or auto accidents, is that these kooks actually want to kill infidels, and they're putting a lot of effort behind it.

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    20. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for the War On Chicken Sandwiches

      Close enough? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    21. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Right, just republicans. Democrats aren't worried at all and you never see this kind of thing on CNN, ABC, or MSNBC. Oh wait, you do!

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    22. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      It really isn't a problem we created, per se. We enabled and exacerbated the problem, but what created the problem is the extremist ideology itself, Wahhabism and Salafism. We were a catalyst, but if not for us, it likely it would have found another outlet eventually. People like to beleive Islam was always peaceful up until the last 20 years, and except during the Crusades, but there have always been wars, conquests and infighting in it's history.

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    23. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by djnforce9 · · Score: 1

      I am reminded of the War of the Worlds broadcast that apparently even caused suicides. Back then you didn't have Internet or anywhere to cross-reference information so people believed whatever was on the radio.

    24. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      We enabled and exacerbated the problem, but what created the problem is the extremist ideology itself, Wahhabism and Salafism. We were a catalyst, but if not for us, it likely it would have found another outlet eventually.

      An outlet, likely. The same one, and to the same extent, I'm not sure. For example, Afghanistan was already an extremist shithole before we invaded it. I distinctly remember reading about The Taliban destroying two giant stone Buddhas in 2001 several months before 9/11. I think the big question is whether or not the extremism of ISIS would have come up in the middle east had we never invaded Iraq. Certainly we stoked the embers of anger when we did that.

      People like to beleive Islam was always peaceful up until the last 20 years, and except during the Crusades, but there have always been wars, conquests and infighting in it's history.

      There is no religion you cannot say that about. We've had Buddhist monks taking up arms for their faith at various times. The Christians have been anything but peaceful. Hindus, Shintos, Jews, etc... they've all gotten into it at some point to spread their faith. The difference is that now we know about it a lot sooner thanks to the internet and the 24x7 news cycle. We have also gotten a lot better at killing appalling numbers of people quickly in the past couple centuries.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    25. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Oh, I agree on the religion thing. I read last year that some Hindus killed a women for being a "witch", which really surprised me. It's just that no religion should be called, "the religion of peace", and lately, Islam "wins" for having the most extremists worldwide with the most financing and organization.

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    26. Re:Who are these people they are talking with? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      Every religion wants to preach peace. Most religions are pretty effective at it, most of the time. However every religion has been hijacked by various maniacs throughout its existence and used to further campaigns of violence and hatred. There is no religion that has no blood on its hands in this regard.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  2. ISIS is really not that scary by quantizationnoise · · Score: 2

    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).

  3. They're afraid of the wrong things... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:They're afraid of the wrong things... by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      This is part of the reason why you don't put bumper stickers on you car.

      Also https://politics.slashdot.org/...

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    2. Re:They're afraid of the wrong things... by martinfb · · Score: 1

      Then why aren't you and more folks PUSHING for government reform? Doesn't Bernie Sanders make sense to keep the promise of focusing on this? Doesn't Trump and Clinton SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF YOU?! They represent MORE OF THE SAME crap we have now.

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      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  4. ISIS? Please! by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    To the average American the cops are far more dangerous.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:ISIS? Please! by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Yup. Wendy's way more dangerous than Muhammad.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:Simple question by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

    Why don't Americans fear their own government most?

    Because they've had 13-17 years or so of public indoctrination.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  6. International fears by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    the IRS, NSA, and Hillary/Trump are not valid values.

    1. Re:International fears by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      the IRS, NSA, and Hillary/Trump are not valid values.

      They could be if you're traveling abroad.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  7. Make America Great Again by goombah99 · · Score: 1

    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.
  8. Their deepest fears revealed by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

    ISIS launching CyberAttacks!!!

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  9. Not me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What I fear most is Hillary somehow reaching the White House.

    1. Re:Not me by Creepy · · Score: 1

      The only thing I fear more than that is Trump reaching the White House.

      Looks like I vote third party again, but I think that was already a given for me.

  10. I Fear My Government More by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    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.

  11. Google Chrome is freaking me out right now by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    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.
    1. Re:Google Chrome is freaking me out right now by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Firefox has added support for suggestions one or two versions ago. It might work with duckduckgo and perhaps you need to focus on the search bar which is Ctrl-K. I'm not too interested in trying. You can do google searches with "bang commands" although I will likely follow on the advice and try startpage searches.

  12. Isis? Really? by Sosetta · · Score: 1

    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.

  13. What about trans people? by Pascoea · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:What about trans people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Americans have absolutely zero clue about real threats. None. They panic over ISIS while they grow obese and die from heart disease (which kills a million Americans a year). Just about anything you can name is more likely to kill you than a terrorist, including being hit in the face by a meteor.

      Hey ISIS! You want to kill Americans? Come over here and open a restaurant that serves deep fried lard dipped in butter served with a bucket of sugar. They'll be singing your praises about your delicious junk food while being buried in spherical coffins by the millions. :P

    2. Re:What about trans people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe I'm naive, but I've got other shit to worry about right now.

      Or maybe you just aren't a coward?

      I can spot a coward easily enough; anyone who is afraid of death, terrorism, people who are different than themselves... cowards each and every one. They roll in their fears like a hound in feces, and cover themselves with their own stink.

      "The brave only die once; the coward dies every day"

    3. Re:What about trans people? by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      Have you ever moved a stove? Shit's nasty back there.

  14. pocketbook by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    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.
  15. My benchmark for risk... by swm · · Score: 1

    ...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.

  16. The first enemy in life by whoozwah · · Score: 1

    Our first enemy in life is fear, followed by clarity, power and old age. It seems most never overcome their first enemy.

  17. Americans are afraid of ISIS? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    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.
  18. Re:Simple question by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    The difference is maybe that all ISIS can essentially do is bomb something. There is no other way they could possibly have any negative effect on you. The likelihood of this happening is insignificant. To give you an idea just HOW unlikely it is, you're more likely to appear in one of those "10 funniest ways to die" videos that litter YouTube. There is absolutely nothing else ISIS can do to fuck up your life.

    Your government, on the other hand, has a lot of options to just do that. The question is now whether you believe in your government to not do that, or whether you don't. That's up to you.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  19. My doom by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

    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.
  20. Translation: by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    "You can blow my brains out, just don't take away my TwitterBook!"

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  21. Sean Penn AND Alec Baldwin? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    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.
  22. By a pure coincidence by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    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.
  23. I am sure it just "isn't that easy" but.... by Brad1138 · · Score: 1

    Is it not possible to have a truly secure OS?

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  24. Get a grip! by AstroSurf · · Score: 1

    The 2 biggest threats to YOU, where you are right now, are Fukushima and GM food. Nothing else comes close.

    --
    Astro
  25. A better headline by Holi · · Score: 1

    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.
  26. Sure, I am fearful of the SYMPTOMS... by martinfb · · Score: 1

    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.
  27. Dominant minority by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Expel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... from your country

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    Casteism