THE FINAL WORD Buck Sexton
AWORLDWIDE CYBERWAR YOU CAN'T IGNORE
TOMORROW'S BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWING MUCH CLOSER TO HOME...
I f you’re not worried about imminent, catastrophic computer attacks on U.S. soil – like the recent hacker attempts to probe American nuclear facilities – you should be ... For years, policymakers and pundits alike have cautioned that unless critical steps are taken, it’s only a matter of time before we suffer the equivalent of a “ Cyber 9/11 .” In recent months, Congress has held numerous, ominous hearings about cyber warfare in the 21st century. And concerns are growing over Chinese and Russian hacking capabilities. Add to this the recent polling that shows a majority of Democrats reportedly believe President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to “hack” our last national election. Cybersecurity is now at the heart of the
most rancorous political environment since President Nixon. Nonetheless, most folks continue to go about their lives without losing sleep that the Russkies are about to hack the grid and plunge a major U.S. city into darkness or that China will shut down our air-traffic control any minute for the heck of it. The Internet as a battleground of great power politics is mostly left for Pentagon experts and tech geniuses. Those of us who still have trouble connecting a printer to Wi-Fi (guilty as charged) aren’t about to step up to the front lines of the cyber war. It would be tough to go code-to-code with shadowy hacker activists (“hacktivists”) from your aging MacBook that freezes regularly.
80 | July 2017
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