Gates thinks pc virus worse then WMDs

[donsu]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6663555/


Ex-CIA chief Gates warns on cyberterror


Cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction yet and could cripple the U.S. economy, former CIA Director Robert Gates said at a terrorism conference Saturday.

-snip-

He said the CIA and National Security Agency conducted an exercise six years ago, assigning 50 computer specialists to see how hard it would be to shut down the nation's electric grid. It took only two days for the group to put itself in a position to do so, he said.

"All you have to do is look at what happened in the northeast when you had a tree fall on a line in rural Ohio," he said of a blackout that affected cities from Detroit to New York last year. "What I am talking about is bringing the U.S. economy to its knees."

-in this snip Gates went on to spin into a fear mongering rap on 'terrorists'-
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same old trash talk to keep americans afraid and sending our young into the military to 'protect' us (and to protect the neo cons war profits)

on edit: he said this in '04

[uppityperson]

1. how can the military protect us from cyberterror?

Teeny tiny soldiers trooping through the internets tubes? I can see his point that cyberstuff could do a whole lot of damage since so much is tied into computers.

[SheilaT]

2. Yes! Teeny tiny soldiers

trooping through the internets? I love it. Heck, I'd probably be willing to let my sons enlist for that war!

In truth, we've occasionally had viruses that have done lots of harm to computers. The real problem is that Microsoft is singularly vulnerable and so widely used that it's a giant target for someone who wants to write a virus.

I've been muttering ever since around noon on September 11, 2001, that the next act of terrorism won't be repeat plane hijackings, but something else we may not even be thinking about.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. I've been amazed that we seem to have escaped it for so long.

Or maybe we've not been told. Our economies, grotesquely claimed by our governments to be brilliantly successful, seem to have depended on vandalising our respective social welfare and safety nets - including pensions, education, public (or once public) services of all kinds.

[troublemaker]

4. It's not an unreasonable position. Richard Clarke has said much the same

The BushCo emphasis on suicide bombers and such is political tripe. Attacks on economic infrastructure could harm many more Americans.

The people who would suffer most are those at the margins. Recessions are most devestating for the poor, and that's a legit moral concern.