The Quintessential 'Smart Bomb'?
According to Australian security expert Luke Howie, a terrorist attack from cyberspace is more likely than a suicide bomber and could create more havoc. Carrying out a deadly attack would need little more than a personal computer, hacking skills and an extremist ideology."All over the world, we have a very heavy reliance on technological infrastructure and technological systems; nearly every part of our lives is run by computer systems and essentially that creates a vulnerability".Remember Y2K when the world was going to end the year 2000? Well this time it could be for real.
"Once you have a technical system controlling a piece of infrastructure, something that could potentially cause damage if mismanaged, that technical infrastructure is automatically vulnerable to a (terrorist attack)," said Mr Howie, a research associate at the Australian Homeland Security Research Centre. "You can't station troops on an information superhighway."
I can't think of anything today that isn't controlled by computers in one way or another. Imagine the aftermath of hurricane Katrina on a national scale. Absolute KAOS!
Disruption of essential services like fresh water, electricity, food, transportation, communications, emergency services... the list is endless and could spell disaster if a coordinated cyber-terrorist attack were to be successful.
It would be the ultimate 'smart bomb'. So what are the authorities doing about it?
I'm not one for fear mongering but it is a frightening scenario.
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