RE: People on Google Security blog don't understand cyber terrorism

["David Gillett" <gillettdavid () fhda edu>]

Murda McCloud wrote:

> I doubt that people are 'terrorised' in quite the same manner about
'attacks' that take place via communication or power networks(the
> internet/phone/grid) etc as they are by a bomb going off when you are
trying to get on a bus or a train.

  A few years ago, an aunt of mine forwarded an email she had received from
her local sysadmin.  It was one of those bogus "virus warning" email chain
letters ("please warn everyone you know") that were once almost common.
  He had left the Cc: list visible, so I replied to All explaining how and
why the "warning" lacked any shred of credibility.
  In short order, I got a nasty note from said sysadmin, accusing me of
sabotaging his relationship with his user community.  I responded that if
the best thing he could tell them boiled down to "you should be afraid to
use email", he had much bigger problems than me.

  That email chain letter's effect, apparently by design, was to spread fear
amongst users, and in that gentler time, I might have been willing to
consider it a species of "terrorism".  But that was at a time when the use
of the word did NOT constitute justification for massive surveillance,
"rendition, torture, and the other excesses of the past decade.  Now the
word "terrorism" is used to stampede people into limitless spending on all
manner of "security theater" measures -- one could argue without too much
exaggeration that the deliberate misapplication of the label is itself a
form of terrorism.

> Now please don't get us started on Cyber 'Warriors'.

  Amen!

David Gillett, CISSP


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