Focus On Cyber-Crime Misses The Real Emerging Threat

12/03/2010

By Bill Roth, LogLogic CMO

Thanks to tough economic times (and the resulting hit on our wallets) and a generous dollop of fear-mongering from the media and opportunistic profiteers, we've all become myopically obsessed with cyber-crime. This is not entirely a bad thing. Unless you've been living under a rock, everyone knows that technology has created unimaginable opportunity for resourceful crooks. The pitfall is in our myopia. We've become so obsessed with cyber-crime - a "petty" offense in the grand scheme of things - that we've overlooked the bigger picture.

A recent New York Times article reminded us of...

...a conspicuously under-reported digital security threat: Cyber-Terrorism. Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence (the uber-agency which houses the CIA), made the following comment in an appearance before the U.S. Congress:

"Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also recently shed light on the critical nature of this global issue when she urged NATO members to "modernise and strengthen" their alliance to combat cyber-terrorism[ which has created a climate in which conventional weapons (i.e. missiles and bombers) are "no longer sufficient" to keep Europe and the U.S. safe.

These are important reminders that all cyber-threats are not strictly for money and are certainly not all commercial. In fact, there is good reason to believe that the largest increase in systems security vulnerabilities will occur as a result of political, not criminal, activity. The good news is that most IT environments already have most (but not all) of the tools to deal with this emergent threat.

In discussing this issue, it is important to first have a decent working definition of "politics". Politics is the creation, distribution and maintenance of power across some group of people. In this case,... continued on page two >

 

 

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