Is the United States in the middle of a cyber war? You'd think the answer to that question would be obvious. But apparently it depends on whom you ask.
Case in point: At this week's RSA security conference, Scott Borg, director and chief economist from the U.S. Cyber Consequence Unit think tank, declared that we are already deep into a cyber war.
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This followed on the heels of a report by yet another D.C. think tank, the Bipartisan Policy Center, which held a tabletop "cyber war" exercise and concluded that if such a war were held today, the United States would have its virtual assets handed to it.
Testifying before Congress last week, former National Intelligence director Mike McConnell said if we were at cyber war, we'd lose -- badly. He did everything but force members of Congress to duck and cover under their desks to hide from the Internet bogeymen:
If the nation went to war today, in a cyber war, we would lose. ... We're the most vulnerable. We're the most connected. We have the most to lose.
He then elaborated on this in a 1,381-word op-ed in the Washington Post a few days later:
We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions, and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military, and legal options -- and we must be able to do this in milliseconds. More specifically, we need to reengineer the Internet to make attribution, geolocation, intelligence analysis, and impact assessment -- who did it, from where, why, and what was the result -- more manageable.
In case you missed his point, McConnell is talking about an Internet where every bit can be traced to its source, down to the chair where you're now sitting. (You naughty little monkey. Don't think the NSA doesn't know what you've been up to.)
This week, newly appointed cyber security czar Howard Schmidt said, basically, "Take a hike, Mike." As quoted by Wired News' Ryan Singel:
There is no cyber war ... I think thbat is a terrible metaphor and I think that is a terrible concept. There are no winners in that environment.
In a blistering (and apparently Red Bull-fueled) editorial, Singel essentially calls McConnell a shameless shill who's trying to ratchet up the fear level for the benefit of his current employer.
McConnell isn't collecting a government salary any more. He's now EVP at Booz Allen Hamilton, which already collects more than $2.7 billion in government contracts, according to the company's own Web site. Booz Hamilton is now part of the shadowy Carlyle Group, beloved by conspiracy theorists as a twisted amalgam of the Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, and the Visitors from that alien invasion show, "V."
(For the record, I'm with the conspiracy theorists on that one. Also: Soylent Green is people. Pass it on.)
Thus we encounter the new enemy. First there was communism, then terrorism, now there's cyberism. Those very loud grunting and snorting noises you hear? They're coming from the think tanks, security firms, and defense contractors lining up at the taxpayer trough.
Is the threat from external cyber attackers real? Absolutely. Should we shore up our national IT infrastructure? No doubt. Are private companies aching to make a killing by helping intelligence agencies hoover up all our personal data? You betcha.
So let's take a step back and breathe for a second.
Personally, I would love to see all these malware authors, botnet operators, cyber thieves, spammers, and scammers sent to the slammer. And if they're "state sponsored," even more so. But not at the expense of having my every online movement tracked, categorized, and placed into some data mining machine to determine whether I'm a threat to America's freedoms.
The big problem with intelligence is that it's not always used intelligently -- or for the noble purposes for which it was allegedly intended. Mistakes are made, sometimes deliberately.
Remember, the old Soviet Union had both an admirably low crime rate and impressively high density of intellectuals and other dissidents eating air biscuits in Siberian gulags. Sometimes high security comes at too high a price.
The next time somebody starts raving about cyber war, make sure they're not trying to pick your pocket at the same time.
Well, that was fun. I now open the floor to your opinions. Are we really at risk from cyber war? What price is too much? Post your thoughts below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.
This article, "The next cyber war will be for your wallet," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Field blog.