My BBC news app brought up a story of a potential "cyber war". For some reason, this struck me as somehow...prophetic? It shouldn't really, because the term "cyber war" has been bandied about for many years now.
But could that long-ago game, Cyberwars, become a reality?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cyberwar-most-likely-to-take-place
Scary stuff, indeed.
Hey, if the "Cyber Wars" don't involve the development of a "glittergun", then they don't count! :D
ReplyDelete60 Minutes had a special last week on Stuxnet. It was a targeted virus to find & disable ceterfuses that purifies uranium. Like a real biological virus, it was designed to target a specific switch. It would spin atoms too fast causing damage to the unit. Since it happened at least to 2 units a day, they eventually figured out that is was a stealth virus (software) that causes physcial damage.
ReplyDeleteThe danger is that a targeted virus could be used to attack the electric grid (no power, for prolonged period), nuclear facilities (disable fail safe), water treatment plants (national drought because we cannot purify availalbe water).
It reminds me of the Terminator movies (a network of computer intelligence), Mr. Smith in the Matrix (rogue program throwing society off), Tron or Lawnmower Man (where human enters the computer system to make changes).
Everyone worries about a natural disaster for 2012 (another good movie). It is possible & clearly plausible that human kind could wipe itself out with a targeted software glitch like this.
I think this calls for Cerberus to come out of hiding and take care of all them baddies...
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