Starting at the end of the second World War, the United
States Congress never "declares" wars. This makes it harder to
count them all. For forty-five years following the end of World War II, we
fought a "cold war," in which there were no military troops in
combat. We had military forces - "kinetic" forces- involved in Korea, Viet Nam, Serbia and
Croatia, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
But now, something new has happened. Cyberwar. According to
Richard Clarke, the next war will be a Cyberwar. And, yesterday, former
Secretary of State Leon Panetta declared that we are now engaged in a Cyberwar.
Among those who have attacked us are the North Koreans, the Chinese, the
Iranians, the Russians, the Saudis and the Israelis. And, according to sources
including several whistle-blowers.
With such a widespread set of combatants, this can only be
described as a "world war."
World War III. No shots fired, no prisoners taken. Money
stolen, or, more accurately, data moved. Factories disabled, or, more
accurately, bugs launched and viruses unleashed.
Both China and Russia have placed bugs within the electric
grid of the United States. Whenever they want, our lights go out and the NSA is
not able to track us. It's good enough to use as a plot line for a thriller,
but without a power grid, I won't be able to sell it to Amazon.
Very recently, hackers have stolen the identities of well
over half the population of the United States. There have been no kinetic
casualties. No deaths.
Cyberwar has been a clean experience so far, so much so that
we all seem to have missed the point. A good hacker can break through the
defensive security in any computer system. The NSA has made certain of this. To
"defend" us, our intelligence services have made every consumer and
every corporation vulnerable to losing everything.
It's a war we cannot win unless we attack first.
Unfortunately, this is something Russia and China have also very likely
concluded.
What's your feeling about this?
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