Ex-CIA Chief Gates Warns on Cyberterror

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HOUSTON - 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.

Gates, who became Texas A&M University's president in 2002 about a decade after he left the CIA, cited as an example the "love bug" virus that overwhelmed computer systems around the world in 2000.

"When a teenage hacker in the Philippines overnight can wreak $10 billion in damage to the U.S. economy by implanting a virus, imagine what a sophisticated, well-funded effort to attack the computer base of our economy could accomplish," said Gates, addressing the two-day conference at Rice University.

Even before 2000, the United States seemed an easy cyberterrorism target, Gates said.

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.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041205/ap_on_hi_te/gates_terrorism

[bemildred]

1. Seems Gates and Tenet are on the same page.

Purely a coinkydink or course.

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2. Of course. Gotta have rules in place to monitor those internets, don't

ya know?