Re: Fwd: [ISN] Cyberwar Rhetoric Is Scarier Than Threat of Foreign Attack

[Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:33:12PM -0400, Robert Portvliet wrote:
> So, are we being fed 'cyber-wmd' stories to sway public opinion & to what
> end?  

"Follow the money."

In the public sector:

There are no real military threats any more: former foes are either
disintegrating faster than we are or are much more concerned about
profiting from our existence than destroying us by force.  So one way to
avoid one's agency's budget slashed is to expand its mission, preferably
against something big and nebulous and scary.  Most of the intelligent
people have seen through the ridiculous hype over "terrorism", so now
they're trying this.

Meet the new threat, same as as the old threat (keyboard solo).

In the private sector:

Peddling the snake-oil flavor of the month, whether it's hardware or
software or services or certifications, has proven to be quite lucrative.
So it's in the interest of these companies to magnify the threat as much
as possible, and then -- just by sheer happenstance of course -- be
standing there with The Perfect Solution for only $49,500 plus maintenance
updates, service contract, training package, etc.

---Rsk
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.