SENTINEL WATCH July 13, 2009 Issue

A SPIRITUAL COUNTERATTACK TO CYBERWARFARE

CHANNING WALKER

NIGHTMARE SCENARIOS ABOUND. For instance: a 9/11-style attack, made much worse. How? In one scenario all the primary electricity sources in the United States get knocked out just moments prior to the attack, wiping out phone service and most other communication systems. Could that really occur? Experts don't just point to what might happen, but to what already has.

Computer networks managing the three key electric grids in the US already have been breached (see for example: "The rise of the cyberspy," The Week, June 5, 2009). Are bugs—designed to disable the grids—already planted in the system and set to activate at some future time? Some people fear so. Cyberwarfare involves the criminal misuse of computers to hack into networks—often government and military—steal information, and foster chaos. Disabling networks and crippling infrastructure increase that chaos.

This practice, which apparently originates mostly in China and Russia (although no one knows if it involves the governments or just freelance criminals in those two nations), grows exponentially every year. Of course, the US government, and others under attack, aren't just idly standing by. Some of the world's best, most cyber-savvy experts are day and night thwarting the attackers and fortifying public safety in this battle, where computers are the weapons, the targets, and the first line of defense.