Computer Terrorism

Maybe I am missing something or there is something that I don't understand.

Why is computer terrorism such a big deal?

First of all computer just have not been around all that long so it is not like we have forgotten how to function without them.

Of course they are convenient and of course in some case they reduce time and improve efficiency, but they don't "have" to be a requirement.

We "can" live without them.

I hear people talking about the threat of terrorist shutting down America and throwing us into the dark by sabotaging our computers.

I don't get it. I life in an area where we have power outages and hurricanes have let us without electricity and land lines for as long as two months at a time.

That is why we have generator, hand pumps and cell phones. We have manual systems on everything from our garage doors to our propane stoves.

Why would a country that is supposed to be as large and ?smart? as America not have an automatic backup system in operation for their critical operations.

Like I said, maybe I don't see the big picture and I am missing something; but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Explain to it to me like I am a three year old. I won't be offended.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


Here's a thread I'm working on, and have not gone far, yet, on it.

Research Project On New Terrorist Labeling

If you're not a member of the Research Forum, you can not reply.

Feel free to read it, and U2U me if you would like, or contribute to it, if you are a Scholar.

And I wholeheartedly disagree, the Internet, has been around a lot longer than you think. Check out this link on the ARPANET, the predecessor to our current Internet.

The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet.

Stop The Stalkers

Read about my fight against stalkers here, since I was six years old.

Left-Wing, Right-Wing, This Turkey, Knows How To Soar Like An Eagle

Become a member of the Bully Pulpit, so you can debate me politically, if you do not choose membership in the Bully Pulpit, you can only read, and not post replies.

[edit on 31-5-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


Allow me to help you with that.

As we move forward, everything is becoming automated. Which means we have a computer that takes care of the traffic lights, a computer that takes care of the Nuclear Power Plant, a computer that takes care of the power grid etc...

If one of those systems is compromised, then said terrorist could potentially cause the reactor to meltdown, and there you have an nuclear fallout situation.

As things become interconnected through the internet, it's anybody's game. It's not that hard to hack and create bugs ans ruin somebody's life long work. It happens all the time.

As far as cell phone goes, what if they turn off the towers? Shut off the signal output? You are left without a cell phone.

Electricity, sure you can have a back up generator, but will it last you 6 months with limited fuel if the pumps require electricity to pump them?

The problem with automated backup, is they arent' automated. Once turned on, they work for themselves, but they still required that you turn them on.

If somebody were to take control of the system, then that could be hindered. What if they took control of the stock exchange? And removed everything down to zero?

Most of our information now is no longer stored on paper, it's stored on databases led by computers, that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Look up the term Firesale, and you'll get a better understanding.

Hope this helps.

~Keeper

The government computer network was built before the public had access to the internet. They made it pretty unsecured. They are mostly afraid that the chickens are going to come home to roost. Most of the holes have been fixed but it is a slow and expensive ride to get there and they are not there yet.

AlCiada is not a terrorist threat to our computer network. They are not even a real threat to our nation if the truth be told.

The modern nations of the first world are more worried about losing control of the flow of information and that is the reason for hyping the thread of cyber-terrorism. It is really just to reinforce the status quo, IMHO.

The government increases its power by hyping fear. The real danger to the people is the government. The real danger to the government is the people figuring this out.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


I understand what you are saying, but you would not build a house that had no windows and no doors. So why would you build a system that runs on a foundation that is fragile that you could not control it.

Okay so what if the systems had to be run manually. They have been done manually for years. Is it the best way? Maybe it is if you have a system that is so vulnerable and so delicate that you can't control it; then maybe you should look at another way of running it.

It is not like we don't have the manpower. I think we have enough people out of work that would not mind doing a bit of manual labor.

I am being a little over simplistic but there has to be a way to build security into our systems.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


It's only vunerable because they used the best of what they had at the time. There was no need for protection then, it wasn't considered something that would ever need to be changed.

Manual would no longer work, complex technologies require computers in order to compute the information and maintain that stream of media.

What you need a simple rebuilding of the grid, with safer more practical and better protected systems.

It would cost them an arm and a foot, but that's what happens when you neglect it for 40 years.

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower


How much could it cost them not to fix it?

If there was computer terrorism, I suppose we would not be able to post here at the beautiful AboveTopSecret.com. No I am not greasing!

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


Think about it for a moment okay. I've studied the history of the Internet, and all of it's applications, in entirety. The reason that ARPAnet was released to the general public, was because the men who assisted the Government, as well as other computer "geeks", not my words, began having fun, bouncing packets back and forth, which is the predecessor to what we now have, it's called "email".

The Government did not like the fact that their most sensitive information could not be kept secure, because after a while, these men, and a few women, began perusing the Government's records.

They saw it as way to unreliable to maintain secure documentation, as well as communications systems. They then, turned around, knowing it's insecure features, and turned it loose to the public, making buildings full of cash mind you, and sold off parts to private industry, and they have been plugging holes ever since.

Of course, this is where you get those "firewalls" from, for $99.99, as it's an intentional means, to sell a defunct system, and simultaneously spy on American citizens, through the use of keywords.

I keep telling everyone, there is no New World Order, it's a pre-programmed set of keywords, that flags you in a computer system. It's like a giant honeypot, and every time you mention certain keywords, you are releasing information, in illegal search and seizure.

Since, as we know it, the Internet, is a public domain.

Anything said in "public" is fair game for the lying bastards in Washington D.C. to try to utilize against its citizens.

That's called electronic entrapment, and I've studied this problem, since I was 13 on my first computer, and currently I will be 36 next month. I've spent the last 23 years online, utilizing the Internet, to learn how to maintain peace through knowledge.

Education equals knowledge, knowledge equals wisdom, and wisdom equals power.

Hackers, or better known in the community as "crackers" short for criminal hackers, to me, equal electronic rapists, raping your computer, everything they give you a Trojan virus, violate your privacy, and then pilfer through your computer, life, information.

I was on a one-sided war with hackers, beginning in 1999, and I lost my entire computer, so I know firsthand what these malicious malcontents are capable of doing. The chatroom I frequented back then, had a few in it, and they did not like my definition of them back then, and my e-mail address, IP address, and online personality was broadcast high and low across the hacker web-boards, like ATS is a conspiracy web-board.

Stop The Stalkers

Read about my fight against stalkers here, since I was six years old.

Left-Wing, Right-Wing, This Turkey, Knows How To Soar Like An Eagle

Become a member of the Bully Pulpit, so you can debate me politically, if you do not choose membership in the Bully Pulpit, you can only read, and not post replies.

[edit on 31-5-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


So in your opinion; is there a better way?

If there is no better way and this can't be fixed then this whole thing makes even less sense.

Apart from botnets that can monitor internet traffic, there are always networks just insecure enough to allow someone to gain access.. Important networks.
Like the network of the Large Hadron Collider / LHC.

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

 

So in your opinion; is there a better way?

If there is no better way and this can't be fixed then this whole thing makes even less sense.

Better what, for what exactly? I need clarification to answer that question.

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

 

So in your opinion; is there a better way?

If there is no better way and this can't be fixed then this whole thing makes even less sense.

Better what, for what exactly? I need clarification to answer that question.

It looks like you are saying that the asylum is being run by the inmates.

We as a country have critical and fragile operations that are being run on a system that anyone with with a bit of computer tech savvy can bring crashing down.

If this is true it just does not make sense to me. Why would you build a system on a foundation of ice and sit back and hope that it doesn't melt?

There has to be a better way.

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

 

Okay so what if the systems had to be run manually. They have been done manually for years. Is it the best way? Maybe it is if you have a system that is so vulnerable and so delicate that you can't control it; then maybe you should look at another way of running it.

It is not like we don't have the manpower. I think we have enough people out of work that would not mind doing a bit of manual labor.

I see the problem is that very few people know how to run the systems on manual anymore. So you got lots of people all untrained for these jobs... are you going to allow them to control coolant levels in a reactor? How about pressure in a natural gas pipeline? How about oxygen levels in a hospital ward?

Originally posted by exile1981

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn
reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

 

Okay so what if the systems had to be run manually. They have been done manually for years. Is it the best way? Maybe it is if you have a system that is so vulnerable and so delicate that you can't control it; then maybe you should look at another way of running it.

It is not like we don't have the manpower. I think we have enough people out of work that would not mind doing a bit of manual labor.

I see the problem is that very few people know how to run the systems on manual anymore. So you got lots of people all untrained for these jobs... are you going to allow them to control coolant levels in a reactor? How about pressure in a natural gas pipeline? How about oxygen levels in a hospital ward?

So you are writing us off? Man is now obsolete?

I have to laugh at this because last night my computer at work went down and locked me out from being able to dispense medications.

If there was no fail safe back up, that situation could have turned deadly.

Machines are not infallible and they can make a much bigger mess than a person can make sometimes.

Well, for example, did anyone see ''Live Free or Die Hard'' starring Bruce Willis?
In that movies they are fighting against a so called ''Fire-Sail''
This is something that can actually happen now a days, terrorist bring all the internet and computer acces down, change traffic lights, cancel the stock market.

So yes, if you ask me if cyber terrorisme is a problem.

Originally posted by PSP
Well, for example, did anyone see ''Live Free or Die Hard'' starring Bruce Willis?
In that movies they are fighting against a so called ''Fire-Sail''
This is something that can actually happen now a days, terrorist bring all the internet and computer acces down, change traffic lights, cancel the stock market.

So yes, if you ask me if cyber terrorisme is a problem.

No.

What I am asking is if you know that the house you are looking to buy has a fire raging in the basement, do you ignore it and sign the the deed of sale?

My question is why if we know that the internet has the potential for such a disaster do we continue to use it so exclusively.

My question is why is isn't there measures being taken to avoid the scenario you are so sure is going to occur.

Why are we piling all of our critical and most fragile items in a boat that is made of Swiss cheese?