Robert Gates: "cyberterrorism" is worst WMD out there?

[BlueEyedSon]

Kevin Poulsen at Wired News' 27bStroke6 blog writes:

The president's choice for new defense secretary believes in "cyberterrorism." From this 2004 AP article:

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.

We interrupt this block quote to say: please!, let that be hyperbole by the AP, and not an accurate reflection of what's in our next defense secretary's head. Continuing ...

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.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/11/now_well_find_t.html

via BoingBoing

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/09/robert_gates_cyberte.html

[originalpckelly]

1. Smart guy.

He's so right, a terrorist could end America in one fell swoop.

Maybe this guy isn't as stupid as I thought.

[mtnester]

4. Of course, you can also make the tinfoil assumption that Gates would also

like total control and ability to totally monitor, the Internets.


Just another line of thought to throw out there before I go grocery shopping :)

[riderinthestorm]

6. This was my first thought too.

:tinfoilhat: firmly in place.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. He is right...a "Logic Bomb"

could be very crippling.

[jean]

3. sounds like Gates must have listened to Richard Clarke at some point

[MindPilot]

5. Then he understands that national security includes paper ballots

because a voting system that could be hacked by terrorists would be a serious threat.