And more recently, articles covering some related topics have caught my eye. There have been articles discussing foreign/military-based attacks, and there have been articles about physical network damage and extortion. And more in the potentially related area of huge botnets.
As someone interested in network security in both professional and fictional manners, I have followed some of the stories. I find it curious and interesting that after years of almost complete silence about the various dangers to our technology infrastructure, suddenly there seems to be news everywhere.
I think there are three non-exclusive possibilities:
- There is a significant increase in real threats and risks.
- Different groups are struggling to increase the amount of government funding and attention and likely angling to increase their share of that growing pie.
- People (and the press) have come to realize just how much of our lives have come to depend on these fragile things called computers and networks.
While I'm willing to believe things are generally becoming worse, I do not think there has been any dramatic increase in actual threats. However, the potential threats of the past may be the realized threats of the present.
Whatever other facts are in evidence, I feel confident there are groups positioning themselves to best gain from any increased attention, focus, and funding for protecting our networks. This is simply a no-brainer. Whether anything is "really" going on or not, people are greedy and power hungry.
But I think we would be foolish to completely discount the (slowly) evolving realization that we all depend of this network infrastructure for our daily and emergency needs. What if you could not access your bank account for a week? Two weeks? What if the hospital cannot access records or control the various pieces of high-tech gear? How about phones? 911?
Where it was once easy to joke about the geeks and their computers, or crack funny about the computer virus going around and disrupting productivity, it has become more serious business. A real villain might see our network infrastructure as a soft underbelly begging for attack, and I don't think it takes an imagination fed on cyberpunk science fiction to see things could go very badly.
Cyber Warfare and Cyber Security
- No quick cybersecurity fix seen
- White House may take cybersecurity role from Homeland Security
- New Military Command to Focus on Cybersecurity
- RSA 2009: NSA denies turf war over US cyber security
- Cyber Spies Breach Pentagon's Fighter Jet Project
- The Cold War Moves To Cyberspace
- Time for an Internet A-Team?
Physical Network Damage and Extortion
Botnets
