More on Stuxnet and cyberwar

The Cyberwar Surge

It will probably take an attack on U.S. assets to bring this into mainstream debate, but it is coming because it is inevitable. Richard Clark has a book called Cyber War that covers the topic. I saw him on C-SPAN giving a talk about cyberwar and he had an interesting quote, which I will paraphrase. He said the current approach to cyber security is as if, during the Cold War, the U.S. government told U.S. Steel that it was a target for Russian attack in a war and it ought to buy anti-aircraft guns.

We have never seen a major decline in social mood during the digital age, but it is likely that people will collapse into smaller networks online just as they will become less open to foreigners in politics. The idea of an American network to be defended from foreign attack is opposite to the concept of the World Wide Web, which links everyone around the globe. However, I expect this idea to gain momentum, at least in the sense of a need for cyber defense. There will be a white hot debate over the government's primary role to defend against foreign attack versus the liberty of the people.