CYBERATTACKS
if so? Probably not. The rally-’round- the-flag effect of foreign baddies is too powerful for any American politician to dilute. But this suggests another question... Why isn’t America fighting back? Why aren’t we reading about the hacks by U.S. government spooks or American freelance hackers in the pocket of Uncle Sam of (say) Russian government employment databases... Chinese oil pipelines... North Korean missile systems? Why isn’t America fighting back? Why aren’t we reading about the hacks by U.S. government spooks or American freelance hackers in the pocket of Uncle Sam of (say) Russian government employment databases... Chinese oil pipelines... North Korean missile systems? Maybe it is happening, but it’s kept secret. But if so – why? Presumably there would be a big deterrent value (as in, other cyberwarriors would be less inclined to take on American cyber assets) in the American government claiming some big cyber kills. Junior hackers in North Korea, for example, may be less inclined to take on America if they know what happened to the last guy/country who tried. Or is America too moral, too high-standing, to strike back? Hah, doubtful... The moral compass of the government that brought us Abu Ghraib prison torture and ignored
lead-tainted water in Flint, Michigan and the Tuskegee syphilis study broke a long time ago. And in any case, there are no rules to cyberwarfare... The team that holds back because they don’t want to hurt the other guy too badly is the team that loses. IS IT GOING TO STOP? If cyberattacks were the action of just a few bad actors, then there might be a big come- together-and-sing-kumbaya global deal to prevent and fight cyberattacks. Of course that’s not going to happen, since cyberwarfare is, well, war . There is no common good... there’s only winning, or losing. And even the good guys (a definition adjusted according to whose side you’re on) wouldn’t want to limit themselves in a kind of cyber–Geneva Convention since, well, it’s war, right? IT’S TIME TO BE AFRAID We – as in, humankind, including (or maybe especially) those who are best placed to understand all the bad things that might hurt us – are terrible (unlucky?) at forecasting risk. The World Economic Forum, (“WEF”) an international organization that hosts the Davos Forum, each year releases a report on the biggest risks the world faces. It compiles the Global Risk Report by surveying smart people in government, business, civil society, and elsewhere. Disappointingly (but not surprisingly), “infectious diseases” didn’t make the top 5
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September 2021
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