CyberTerrorism - Reality or FUD? 358
Random Utinni writes "The director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit (part of Homeland Security) claims that terrorist hackers are poised to create total chaos. He predicts all sorts of scenarios, from changing the formulae for medications to causing cars to explode after a few weeks of driving. Is this guy fearmongering for an increased budget, or is he on to something here?"
Re:TERRORISM IS FUD PERIOD (Score:3, Informative)
Re:pure fearmongering (Score:2, Informative)
people into electing and re-electing them.
Or at least close enough to electing them that they can make up the difference.
KFG
Re:Chicken Littles? (Score:5, Informative)
I worked on Y2K remediations that impacted everything from payroll to fire alarm systems. Another was responsible for scheduling medical supply deliveries to EMT rigs. I know people who worked on phone systems (911 dialing, anyone?), hospital HVAC, food storage systems, and water treatment facilities.
Why no big problem? Because we all worked our asses off, that's why. Calendar roll-forward trials on paralllel copies of the systems produced everything from total failures of HVAC to people not getting paid and medical shipments dying in the freight schedules. Those things were only avoided because they were fixed. Should the people who originally paid for those systems have not cut the corner, or pressed their original engineers on the issue? Sure. But they didn't. Just like the people that designed much of what's still vulnerable today - only instead of the calendar, it's accidents and malice to fret about.
Both (Score:2, Informative)
On the other hand, 99% of 99% of the time it is down right FUD.
Alternatively, the FUD is the Cyberterrorism. Isn't that what terrorism is all about? Playing on the Fears, Uncertanty, and Doubts of others? "The boogy-man will eat you some day."
The truth is the Boogy-man is right here.
The perception that the boogy-man could be a computer geek with a vendetta, an Arabian man with a video camera, an Iranian man with a degree in chemistry, or an American who has a private adgenda all depends on who is giving us that message.
The message is no longer the truth, it seems, since the truth is constantly altered and edited to suit the interest of a few media conglomorates, corporations, and miserly zealots.
The boogy man is not Cyberterrorism, Bioterrorism, or even FUD.
The real terrorists are the FUD-packers who deliver the yellow journalism and lie to the terrorists and to the public.
The true devils are the ones whispering in your ear.
oblig. full quote (Score:1, Informative)
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: [uncomprehendingly] Thanks, honey.
Lisa: By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Hmm. How does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work; it's just a stupid rock!
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: (pause) Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
Re:TERRORISM IS FUD PERIOD (Score:4, Informative)
No you should exclude the deaths of americans in Iraq, since I presume you've never been to Iraq and never will (and for the people who do, their odds should be calculated differently). If you calculate the odds for an american to die from terrorism, well normally you should use last year's figure but that wouldn't fun because IIRC from 2002 to now no american died from terrorism on the american territory (correct me if i'm wrong) so let's just use almost 5-year old 9/11 so you can have odds different than 0.
So with 3,000 death (from wikipedia : "At least 2,986 people were killed in total") for about 300,000,000 people (from wikipedia : "As of July 2006, there are an estimated 298,444,215 people in the United States") in 6 years, you have, provided that we consider that another 9/11 might happen within the next 6 years, which is quite unlikely, 1 out of 600,000 odds of dying from terrorism within a one-year period.
No good reason to be scared, according to me, but if you're one of the persons who think they are likely to win lottery, you should be crapping your pants.
Re:TERRORISM IS FUD PERIOD (Score:3, Informative)
The fact is there's been a sharp rise in global terrorism [washingtonpost.com].
Things are going so well that the State Department has ceased publishing terrorist statistics as they're legally mandated to do.
U.S. ports are extremely vulnerable [msn.com]. Airports are still vulnerable [govtsecurity.com].
I'd say you should be counting yourself lucky, not well-protected.