The Ultimate Computer Attack?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100921/ts_csm/327178
Fascinating! Although this program is apparently used as sabotage, rather than spying, it brings up something I've been thinking about lately. We might devolve when it comes to important information and/or functionality. That the most important functions and secrets of a government, company or individual NOT be kept on or operated by/through a computer. I wonder if it will come to that, or already has. I keep seeing stories about DOD worrying about cyber-security, etc. That's a problem that didn't exist 40 years ago. In the Olden Days, someone would have to somehow gain access to locked and guarded buildings, break into locked offices and then crack safes to get at the most sensitive information. Now, you need some pimply faced teenager with a bad case of asperger's syndrome to do the same. If I had some bit of super-secret information like the chemical formulae for some sort of metal used in missile technology, or the real name of a spy in the Chinese politburoro, I'd make sure that that document had ONLY been prepared on an old manual typewriter and then locked away in a safe at CIA HQ, (or wherever). Only a high-placed traitor could then get at it. Period. All the hacking in the world would have no effect. To continue on this little whimsy, a factory of 1970 also couldn't be taken out. All the hacking in the world would be so much spitting into the wind to a GM plant in 1968.
(Thanks for the link, Chris!)
Fascinating! Although this program is apparently used as sabotage, rather than spying, it brings up something I've been thinking about lately. We might devolve when it comes to important information and/or functionality. That the most important functions and secrets of a government, company or individual NOT be kept on or operated by/through a computer. I wonder if it will come to that, or already has. I keep seeing stories about DOD worrying about cyber-security, etc. That's a problem that didn't exist 40 years ago. In the Olden Days, someone would have to somehow gain access to locked and guarded buildings, break into locked offices and then crack safes to get at the most sensitive information. Now, you need some pimply faced teenager with a bad case of asperger's syndrome to do the same. If I had some bit of super-secret information like the chemical formulae for some sort of metal used in missile technology, or the real name of a spy in the Chinese politburoro, I'd make sure that that document had ONLY been prepared on an old manual typewriter and then locked away in a safe at CIA HQ, (or wherever). Only a high-placed traitor could then get at it. Period. All the hacking in the world would have no effect. To continue on this little whimsy, a factory of 1970 also couldn't be taken out. All the hacking in the world would be so much spitting into the wind to a GM plant in 1968.
(Thanks for the link, Chris!)
posted by mendip at
3:26 PM
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