The digital pearl harbour.

[MURACU]

Here are two interesting articals that I found while I was looking for something else. They give some predictions on how the security world will look in 2010. They were published by CIO in its december issue with many other articals on the possiable eveloutions in the computer world in the states over the next couple of years. The articals are quite long and they do raise some very interesting questions. Also it is the first time I have seen the term Digital Pearl harbour used.
Of course like any attempt to look into the futur they very likely have little in common with the futur they are predicting.
Any I would just like to have some different opinoins on them.

First part

Second part

one other little thing on the Web site status bar I see the following information :

Guests On Now: 147
Members On Now: 33
Total Users On Now: 186

Now my question is the following if 147+33 = 180 who are the other six people who are on the site but do not show up as either guests or members?
Hmmmmmm...........

[nihil]

MURACU.

Is that Paris Texas, or Paris France?

If Texas then they are the FBI and the Secret Service..........................France and it is the S.D.E.C.E.

Might be JupMed people as well?

[Und3ertak3r]

Now my question is the following if 147+33 = 180 who are the other six people who are on the site but do not show up as either guests or members?

A user can set their status as hidden.. that is the missing six users.. now that you have worked it out we will have to shoot you..sry

cheers

[MURACU]

First we have hidden listeners. Now i have been put on a hit-list ....... I knew it was a bad idea to come out from my bunker this morning.
edit Hold on I didnt work it out Und3ertak3r you did!! Does that mean you have to shoot yourself?

[cgkanchi]

That was a nice read. However, it's a little extreme, don't you think? I personally don't like the idea of restricting the capabilities of computers. It sounds possible enough to scare me. Something like the patriot act that requires you to register every computer you own/buy. And if something like this does happen, why do I see Open Source Software being the first head to roll?

Cheers,
cgkanchi

[HDD]

I must agree with cgkanchi it all does sound a little bit extreme. However it sure was a good read

And while we're sidetracking:
Guests On Now: 177
Members On Now: 23
Total Users On Now: 201
What happening here? There used to be about 150 users on at any one time. It really would be a shame if AO died.

[R0n1n]

Seems like a good FUD creating article. I really don`t see it happening like that, for years 'experts' (who usually work for security companies who you can buy 'XXXX' from to defend yourself) have touted that a massive digital attack/failure is on the way, but is this really viable in this day and age? We are talking about something that takes out Windows/UNIX/mainframes etc... all at once? maybe something like a router (i.e. BGP) virus could do some damage, I remember a report from a few years back showing the key points on the internet that if taken down could do some damage. However, most companies know how to deal with internet outages (as they seem to happen frequently) and also, the majority of companies still don`t rely on the internet solely as they medium for operating (e.g. If G.Es web site is down I don`t think it will be the end of the company), so what are we really going to see destroyed by this? Maybe 1 million AOL users will be distraught at their inability to chat online, but what else? Many organizations do have firewalls, IDS, and anti virus in place, and most of these survive relatively unscathed from the virus attacks we hear about every week (ok, maybe I generalise, but lets say most of the companies where I know folks), so unless some super bug hits the streets I think this is just more scare mongering crap.

Also seems like a push to get through crap like MS trusted computer platform. Maybe stopping Windows from having 2000000000 lines of code would reduce the susceptibility to bugs, but I don`t think providing eveyone with black box computers is the way to go.

[TheTempest]

Nah,

I don't think AO is gonna die =)

[phase1retaliate]

I really don't know if true cyber-terrorism will be a huge thing. I mean enough to launch a devastating attack like that.

[ShagDevil]

R0n1n, although I do tend to agree with you, I still hold some reserve anxiety towards cyber terrorism. The reason being is what happened not too long ago with the power outage that stretched from Ohio to NYC. You would think, in a country that's as technologically advanced as the US is, that something like electrical grids would never be tagged "Third World".
I would assume, and I think I can speak for people in general that no one put much thought into an Ohio power company as a possible target for terrorists.
That's what scares me. It seemed so mundane and trivial that not much attention was placed on the components (like an Ohio power company) of the electrical infrastructure that compromises the national electric grid. We were lucky enough to find the flaw by accident and resolve the matter at hand.
You're not going to focus on protecting something if you don't consider it to be threatened in the first place. That's where my fear is. Not what we know, but what we consider too trivial to ever pose as a threat. As an ex-programmer, I've learned it's just about impossible to cover every factor involved in making a program work perfect the first time around. It's all trial and error. Only with cyber terrorism, trial and error can be alot more destructive.