Is the Cyber-Terror Threat Inflated?

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | July 7, 2011 | +

A U.S. sailor monitors cyber intrusions on a Navy network / Navy photo by Rick Naystatt

So I’m reading the August-September issue of Reason magazine (a well-crafted periodical of libertarian bent) when I came across a fairly compelling piece on the threat, or lack thereof, posed by cyber-terrorism. Unfortunately, Reason’s latest issue isn’t on line, but I found the working paper on which it is based. It’s well worth a read by the skeptical mind.

Occasional Time Techland contributor Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins of George Mason University are the authors. “I wrote the piece because I kept seeing the rhetoric around cyber-security in Washington, D.C., getting crazier and crazier, and when I looked for the evidence that might support some of the doomsday scenarios being bandied about, I found that there was very little,” Brito says. “I also found that there were few folks pointing this out.”

Consider yourself pointed.

Related Topics: Cyber, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Military, National Security, Pentagon

@TIME

Latest on Battleland

Afghanistan May 21, 2012

Only One Year of U.S.-Led Fighting Left

President Obama’s goal at the NATO summit this week is looking increasingly clear: wrap up U.S. troops’ combat role over the coming year, and get the allies to pay more money to enable the Afghan military to fill the gap.

Missile Defense May 21, 2012

House Pushes for East Coast Missile Shield

The House has approved a $643 billion defense-spending bill for 2013 that’s $3.7 billion more than the Obama Administration, and its Pentagon, is seeking. That’s just about the same amount the Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill’s push for an East Coast missile shield will cost over the next five years.

Military Spending May 21, 2012

The Pentagon’s “Washington Monument Strategy”

Whenever federal bureaucrats running the nation’s parks get antsy that their purse is likely to shrink, they roll out something long known as the “Washington Monument strategy.” That’s the tried-and-true technique of warning the public that if money isn’t forthcoming, one of the first budget cuts will force the shutting down of the popular obelisk to Washington, D.C., tourists.