Software based attacks, like the one described in this piece, are nothing to worry about in the scheme of things. Network managers have several ways of dealing with them. If terrorists start cutting fiber and blowing up rackspace here and there, on the other hand... well, that's a different ball of wax altogether.
Two years ago, I wrote an essay called
Cyberwar: How Terrorists Could Defeat the U.S., and Why They Won't. The main point of the essay was that if "the terrorist threat" was real, "the terrorists" would attack the physical information infrastructure of the United States.
I explained how simple a matter it would be to deliver a kill shot to the United States, and I said that "the terrorists" wouldn't do this because "the terrorists" are a creation of the elite, and the elite need the Internet to keep swindling the rest of us.
But....
Now, two years after I wrote that thing, I wouldn't be surprised if critical network infrastructure was physically destroyed. The global economy is teetering on the brink of collapse. When the macro-scale looting has finally run its course, and the collapse is imminent, why no provide an excellent excuse for the collapse?
Hmmmm. What do you think the reaction on Wall Street would be if, say, the Internet was taken down for a few weeks or months? Hmmmm... Take away the flow of information and you take away the flow of money. Take away the flow of money and you bring down the show. It's really that simple. Nevermind the chaos that would be created in all aspects of our modern, tech centric lives. It's the money, honey. That's what matters.
And why did the Federal Reserve begin transferring money over an Internet-based system this month? The ATM (Asynchronus Transfer Mode) based infrastructure, with its secure, dedicated circuits and decades long track record of reliability were scrapped for a system that relies on Internet infrastructure!!! Crawling with worms, dDOS attacks and script kiddies? Oh sure. Why not?
As for today's potential attack? * yawn * Wake me up when multiple OC-768s go down, we lose a few root DNS facilities and electromagnetic pulse weapons start popping the big iron routers and switches used to move the long haul, intercity and transcon traffic:
e-Jihad Begins Thursday, Internet Predicted to Melt Down by Mid-day
You should probably starting backing up that gig of gmail to local storage. According to a Russian news site, Kaspersky Labs states that terrorists will launch attacks which will paralyze the Internet this Thursday. This tragically coincides with two weeks of script kiddie attacks (which were scheduled to begin this past Sunday) aimed at disrupting the Republican national convention. In addition, many college students are back on campus this week, which provides the e-terrorists and i-subversives with a veritable candyland of insecure boxes on big pipes. Faced with this triple threat, our beloved Internet will surely fall.
The ISC would like to go out on a limb and predict that the Internet will not vaporize into a cloud of nothingness this Thursday, but if it does, it's been our pleasure to help stave off its inevitable annihilation this long.
posted by Kevin at 1:24 PM