Re: cyber-9/11

[Robert Graham <robert_david_graham () yahoo com>]

It's a power grab by the government over the Internet.

The easiest way to do a cyber 9/11 is to cut some cables and blow up a few data centers. Is there anything in that 
cybersecurity bill that addresses the most important threat? No, of course not, because it's not about cybersecurity, 
it's about a power grab.

Chinese teenagers regularly break into computers in the federal government, but they don't cause power blackouts. This 
bill puts the computers controlling power systems under control of the federal government.

--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Larry Seltzer <larry () larryseltzer com> wrote:

> From: Larry Seltzer <larry () larryseltzer com>
> Subject: Re: [funsec] cyber-9/11
> To: "Michael Collins" <mcollins () aleae com>, "Paul M. Moriarty" <pmm () igtc com>
> Cc: "funsec" <funsec () linuxbox org>
> Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 3:37 PM
> The Katrina line is also in the bill:
>
> (6) Paul Kurtz, a Partner and chief operating officer of
> Good Harbor
> Consulting as well as a senior advisor to the Obama
> Transition Team for
> cybersecurity, recently stated that the United States is
> unprepared to
> respond to a ''cyber-Katrina'' and that
> ''a massive cyber disruption
> could have a cascading, long-term impact without adequate
> co-ordination
> between government and the private sector.''
>
> Perhaps "recently" means he said it on April 1.
>
> Larry Seltzer
> eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
> http://security.eweek.com/
> http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/
> Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
> larry.seltzer () ziffdavisenterprise com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Collins [mailto:mcollins () aleae com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 6:25 PM
> To: Paul M. Moriarty
> Cc: Larry Seltzer; funsec
> Subject: Re: [funsec] cyber-9/11
>
> I preferred it when we called it an "Electronic Pearl
> Harbor".
>
> I also swore I saw someone call it a Cyber-Katrina last
> week.
>
> So many metaphors, so little time.
>
> On Apr 7, 2009, at 6:05 PM, Paul M. Moriarty wrote:
>
> > Blow up peering points?
> >
> > Wait, I got it:  Rent 100's of backhoes across the
> country.  Dig in.
> > - Paul -
> >
> >
> > On Apr 7, 2009, at 1:59 PM, Larry Seltzer wrote:
> >
> > > From the just-introduced Rockefeller-Snowe bill
> (U.S. Senate S.773)  
> > > (http://www.infracritical.com/papers/cybersec4.pdf
> > > ):
> > >
> > > 2(10) According to the National Journal, Mike
> McConnell, the former
> > > Director of National Intelligence, told President
> Bush in May 2007
> > > that if the 9/11 attackers had chosen computers
> instead of airplanes
> > > as their weapons and had waged a massive assault
> on a U.S. bank, the
> > > economic consequences would have been ''an
> order of magnitude
> > > greater'' than those cased by the physical
> attack on the World Trade
> > > Center. Mike McConnell has subsequently referred
> to cybersecurity as
> > > the ''soft underbelly of this
> country.''
> > > I read this and I have to ask, basically, WTF does
> this mean? On top
> > > of it not being within the capabilities of Al
> Qaeda to do such a
> > > thing, I have to wonder what they could really
> have done.
> > > Larry Seltzer
> > > eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
> > > http://security.eweek.com/
> > > http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/
> > > Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
> > > larry.seltzer () ziffdavisenterprise com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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