Dangerous ramblings from Malone

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: July 10, 2009 12:14:32 PM EDT
To: nnsquad () nnsquad org
Subject: [ NNSquad ]  Dangerous ramblings from Malone


This commentary:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Technology/story?id=8045546&page=1

by Michael S. Malone is one of the more irresponsible and even  
potentially
dangerous that I've seen from any mainstream technology columnists in
quite some time.

By suggesting that the U.S. use Internet disruption techniques in
response to "cyber attacks," he is in fact endorsing the "Crack in the
World" school of technology
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAU12PiW4NA ).  That is, even when
the potential risks are catastrophic, fire the missile anyway.

Even worse, Malone seems so sure that he knows where to point his
bomb-laden missiles.  But in reality, despite his obvious confidence
that North Korea's leaders are responsible, calmer heads know that it's
virtually impossible to pin down operational command responsibility
for these sorts of attacks in most cases.

But here's the real kicker from Malone:

  "Yeah, right. As if all of those millions of middle-class teenaged
   private owners of broadband connected laptops all over that
   electricity black hole called the People's Republic of North Korea
   spontaneously decided to hack the Web sites of another country's
   government and largest corporations."

Say what?  Malone *must* know that attacks of this kind can indeed be
triggered by a single botnet-commanding teenager anywhere in the
world, and use contaminated PCs anywhere on the planet to try shift
the blame.

So we have to assume that Malone is ignoring these facts intentionally
to prop up his railing against North Korea.

Cyber-warmongering such as that from Malone is unwise, unhelpful, and
in the final analysis, both dangerous and dumb.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator




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