Cyber warfare could wipe out economies

Cyber warfare could wipe out economies
By Joseph S. Nye, Jr, Special to Gulf News
Published: December 13, 2008, 23:45


In August 2008, Russian troops moved into Georgia. Observers dispute who fired first, but there was a little noticed dimension of the conflict that will have major repercussions for the future.

Computer hackers attacked Georgian government websites in the weeks preceding the outbreak of armed conflict. The Russia-Georgia conflict represents the first significant cyber attacks accompanying armed conflict. Welcome to the 21st century.

Cyber threats and potential cyber warfare illustrate the increased vulnerability and loss of control in modern societies. Governments have mainly been concerned about hacker attacks on their own bureaucracy's information technology infrastructure, but there are social vulnerability well beyond government computers.


..snip..

In January 2008, US President George W. Bush signed two presidential directives that called for establishing a comprehensive cyber-security plan, and his 2009 budget requested $6 billion to develop a system to protect national cyber security.

Obama's strategy

President-elect Barack Obama is likely to follow suit. In his campaign, Obama called for tough new standards for cyber security and physical resilience of critical infrastructure, and promised to appoint a national cyber adviser who will report directly to him and be responsible for developing policy and coordinating federal agency efforts.

That job will not be easy, because much of the relevant infrastructure is not under direct government control. Just recently, Donald Kerr, the US deputy director of national intelligence, warned that "major losses of information and value for our government programs typically aren't from spies... In fact, one of the great concerns I have is that so much of the new capabilities that we're all going to depend on aren't any longer developed in government labs under government contract." ...cont'd


http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/world/10266880.html

... from the accounts of the wealthy over to the poor.

That would screw with the heads of the ruling class.

:yourock: http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/04/11/robin_narrowweb__300x464,0.jpg

This is old news. I think it's cute that they want a way to absorb all of the items "not under direct government control" though.

Terra terra terra!

They were oppressed for too long, and now they're out to impose their power upon everyone else.

I'm only half-joking here. Computers rule the world nowadays, and geeks run the computers.