Monday, June 4, 2012

New York Times Continues to Validate Our Prediction about Cyberwarfare

In addition to reporting on privacy issues, as we predicted, The New York Times has also been reporting on cybercrime -- which we also predicted (see original column here) as one of the top ongoing stories the media will cover in 2012. The Times had already validated our predictions with several articles on the topic (see here), but over the past few days, the Times has written at least three articles on cybercrime and cyberwarfare:
  • Asleep at the Laptop by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.who frames the discussion as "Cybergeddon; the next Pearl Harbor; one of the greatest existential threats facing the United States. With increasing frequency, these are the grave terms officials invoke about the menace of cybercrime — and they’re not understating the threat....With all the attention paid to the so-called fiscal cliff approaching at year’s end, it is equally important to ask whether collective inaction has us simultaneously barreling toward a cybercliff of equal or greater height."
  •  Expert Issues a Cyberwar Warning about the implications the Flame virus afflicting computers in Iran and the Middle East.
  • Mutually Assured Cyberdestruction? which reports on a (now not) secret program called “Olympic Games.” Apparently dating from "the last years of the George W. Bush administration, the United States has mounted repeated attacks with the most sophisticated cyberweapons ever developed. ...
    But precisely because the United States refuses to talk about its new cyberarsenal, there has never been a real debate in the United States about when and how to use cyberweapons."
We expect to see more articles about cyberwarfare, including attacks on the U.S. from China and originating from the U.S. on Iran and elsewhere.