http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/yellowcake-and-cyberwar/
By Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins
Threat Level
Wired.com
February 14, 2012
In last month’s State of the Union address, President Obama called on
Congress to pass “legislation that will secure our country from the
growing dangers of cyber threats.” The Hill was way ahead of him, with
over 50 cybersecurity bills introduced this Congress. This week, both
the House and Senate are moving on their versions of consolidated,
comprehensive legislation.
The reason cybersecurity legislation is so pressing, proponents say, is
that we face an immediate risk of national disaster.
“Today’s cyber criminals have the ability to interrupt life-sustaining
services, cause catastrophic economic damage, or severely degrade the
networks our defense and intelligence agencies rely on,” Senate Commerce
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said at a hearing last
week. “Congress needs to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legislation
immediately.”
Yet evidence to sustain such dire warnings is conspicuously absent. In
many respects, rhetoric about cyber catastrophe resembles threat
inflation we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War. And while Congress’
passing of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation wouldn’t lead to war,
it could saddle us with an expensive and overreaching cyber-industrial
complex.
In 2002 the Bush administration sought to make the case that Iraq
threatened its neighbors and the United States with weapons of mass
destruction (WMD). By framing the issue in terms of WMD, the
administration conflated the threats of nuclear, biological, and
chemical weapons. The destructive power of biological and chemical
weapons—while no doubt horrific—is minor compared to that of nuclear
detonation. Conflating these threats, however, allowed the
administration to link the unlikely but serious threat of a nuclear
attack to the more likely but less serious threat posed by biological
and chemical weapons.
[...]
______________________________________________________________________________
Certified Ethical Hacker and CISSP training with Expanding Security gives
the best training and support.
Get a free live class invite weekly. Best program, best price.
www.ExpandingSecurity.com/PainPill
