Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Cyber Terrorism Part 1 What Price for Freedom?
Cyber Terrorism - Part 1
What Price for Freedom?
Series by Jim Putnam
We live in a society that dictates the need to protect our selves, families, homes, property and business. America without insurance would be like air without oxygen. It is difficult to find a single aspect of life in America in which protection is not integrated and essential.
Yet our leadership tell us that the most basic services in which our life and lifestyle depends, the infrastructure of the American standard of living, cannot be protected. The necessities of life, food, air, water, housing and transportation, are all vulnerable to terrorist attack.
We can protect the president. We can protect our money, our gold and our treasures. We can even protect our nuclear arsenal and weapons of destruction. But we cannot protect our quality of life and our people from the threat of cyber terrorism.
The Bush Administration cyber expert Richard Clarke predicts an “Electronic Pearl Harbor” and has blasted the private sector for failing to protect our infrastructure. Yet all experts agree it is a complex issue. Cyber security seems to demand a trade off. More security can be given if we are willing to sacrifice our freedom and privacy.
America’s corporate world, especially the financial and international commerce communities, refuse to accept the government intrusion into their world of corporate secrets for fear the information will be used to tax or prosecute them. Recent examples of corporate greed and abuse suggest there is a lot to hide from the government. Yet the privacy issue is valid.
At the same time, the corporate world is not about to tell us if they have been successfully hacked. To do so would acknowledge they are vulnerable. It would raise doubt as to their ability to protect their records, clients and intellectual property. It would threaten their credit rating and worst of all, it could cause their stock value to fall. Better to cover up the attack than to undermine investor confidence.
Politically, with the federal elections on the horizon and control of Congress in the balance, it is always safer to blame someone else or deflect blame than to assume responsibility. The politicians use the convenient mantra we can’t protect our infrastructure from cyber attack. They blame the private sector for failing to develop adequate security. And they accuse the private sector of refusing to cooperate and withholding information about cyber vulnerability.
Wouldn’t you refuse to tell the government all your secrets? The government can’t keep it’s own secrets, let alone be trusted with proprietary corporate secrets. Still it is a “Catch 22” that must be overcome for the average citizen to go to sleep at night feeling secure that their essential services are protected from the hands of blood thirsty, hate filled terrorists committed to killing Americans and destroying our way of life.
Because tonight the water supply could be poisoned. Tonight the electrical grid could be shut down and air conditioners would stop working in the heat wave. Nuclear reactors could have a melt down sending clouds of deadly radiation into the air and contaminating the countryside. Air traffic controllers could be stopped from contacting the thousands of planes in the air.
Floodgates on dams could be opened sending billions of gallons of water crashing down on communities. You could wake up tomorrow and your bank records could be gone, your insurance coverage cutoff, and health care disrupted. Raw sewage could be diverted into your drinking water. Emergency calls to 911 could go unanswered.
Because our standard of living is excessive, it takes an excessive infrastructure to support it. Our lifestyle is computer and energy dependent. From the cockpit of an airplane to the control room of a nuclear reactor, the 500 digital TV channels to the cell phone attached to your ear, we need the infrastructure to feed our addiction for more.
The techniques that could be used by a single terrorist cell working through cyber space could threaten the very existence of our national infrastructure. Every single catastrophe I mentioned is possible from a few keystrokes on a keyboard. So if the politicians are not responsible, the government can’t help, and the private sector is in denial, where do you turn for help?
This series of columns is intended to offer a wake up call to America, to the government leadership and the business community on the threat to our national infrastructure and what can be done to protect our resources and people. It is too late for theories and hypothetical solutions to very real problems of today threatening our standard of living and quality of life.
Copyright 2005 Jim Putnam, Ivy Hollow Productions. Permission is given for reprinting and distributing this copyright work. Copies of past, present and future columns are available through Ivy Hollow Media an independent news service. Requests to be on the electronic distribution system should be sent to jimputnam@ivyhollow.com/
About the columnist: Putnam was a reporter, spent many years in various political positions at the local, state and federal government, and worked in the NYC media and advertising communities.
What Price for Freedom?
Series by Jim Putnam
We live in a society that dictates the need to protect our selves, families, homes, property and business. America without insurance would be like air without oxygen. It is difficult to find a single aspect of life in America in which protection is not integrated and essential.
Yet our leadership tell us that the most basic services in which our life and lifestyle depends, the infrastructure of the American standard of living, cannot be protected. The necessities of life, food, air, water, housing and transportation, are all vulnerable to terrorist attack.
We can protect the president. We can protect our money, our gold and our treasures. We can even protect our nuclear arsenal and weapons of destruction. But we cannot protect our quality of life and our people from the threat of cyber terrorism.
The Bush Administration cyber expert Richard Clarke predicts an “Electronic Pearl Harbor” and has blasted the private sector for failing to protect our infrastructure. Yet all experts agree it is a complex issue. Cyber security seems to demand a trade off. More security can be given if we are willing to sacrifice our freedom and privacy.
America’s corporate world, especially the financial and international commerce communities, refuse to accept the government intrusion into their world of corporate secrets for fear the information will be used to tax or prosecute them. Recent examples of corporate greed and abuse suggest there is a lot to hide from the government. Yet the privacy issue is valid.
At the same time, the corporate world is not about to tell us if they have been successfully hacked. To do so would acknowledge they are vulnerable. It would raise doubt as to their ability to protect their records, clients and intellectual property. It would threaten their credit rating and worst of all, it could cause their stock value to fall. Better to cover up the attack than to undermine investor confidence.
Politically, with the federal elections on the horizon and control of Congress in the balance, it is always safer to blame someone else or deflect blame than to assume responsibility. The politicians use the convenient mantra we can’t protect our infrastructure from cyber attack. They blame the private sector for failing to develop adequate security. And they accuse the private sector of refusing to cooperate and withholding information about cyber vulnerability.
Wouldn’t you refuse to tell the government all your secrets? The government can’t keep it’s own secrets, let alone be trusted with proprietary corporate secrets. Still it is a “Catch 22” that must be overcome for the average citizen to go to sleep at night feeling secure that their essential services are protected from the hands of blood thirsty, hate filled terrorists committed to killing Americans and destroying our way of life.
Because tonight the water supply could be poisoned. Tonight the electrical grid could be shut down and air conditioners would stop working in the heat wave. Nuclear reactors could have a melt down sending clouds of deadly radiation into the air and contaminating the countryside. Air traffic controllers could be stopped from contacting the thousands of planes in the air.
Floodgates on dams could be opened sending billions of gallons of water crashing down on communities. You could wake up tomorrow and your bank records could be gone, your insurance coverage cutoff, and health care disrupted. Raw sewage could be diverted into your drinking water. Emergency calls to 911 could go unanswered.
Because our standard of living is excessive, it takes an excessive infrastructure to support it. Our lifestyle is computer and energy dependent. From the cockpit of an airplane to the control room of a nuclear reactor, the 500 digital TV channels to the cell phone attached to your ear, we need the infrastructure to feed our addiction for more.
The techniques that could be used by a single terrorist cell working through cyber space could threaten the very existence of our national infrastructure. Every single catastrophe I mentioned is possible from a few keystrokes on a keyboard. So if the politicians are not responsible, the government can’t help, and the private sector is in denial, where do you turn for help?
This series of columns is intended to offer a wake up call to America, to the government leadership and the business community on the threat to our national infrastructure and what can be done to protect our resources and people. It is too late for theories and hypothetical solutions to very real problems of today threatening our standard of living and quality of life.
Copyright 2005 Jim Putnam, Ivy Hollow Productions. Permission is given for reprinting and distributing this copyright work. Copies of past, present and future columns are available through Ivy Hollow Media an independent news service. Requests to be on the electronic distribution system should be sent to jimputnam@ivyhollow.com/
About the columnist: Putnam was a reporter, spent many years in various political positions at the local, state and federal government, and worked in the NYC media and advertising communities.
# posted by Jim Putnam @ 5:13 PM 
