Truth About Computer Security Hysteria

A computer virus can't destroy a skyscraper

COMPUTER ECONOMICS, INC. guesstimates viruses & worms will cost $15 billion in 2001. Security experts habitually cite this firm's "authoritative" virus damage figures. Coincidentally, the World Trade Center attack will cost up to $15 billion according to one newswire report. Therefore, a worm like Code Red can literally cost as much to society as the destruction of the World Trade Center...

Folks, I don't mean to belittle the World Trade Center catastrophe. It was belittled years ago by all the computer virus hysteria we've suffered...

Computer experts like to describe viruses & worms as an "electronic Pearl Harbor." A two-star general (whose name I can't recall) in April pointed to the ILoveYou virus as our nation's horrific example of an electronic Pearl Harbor. Likewise, terrorist acts across America's eastern seaboard qualify as a physical Pearl Harbor...

A politician who spoke on CNN implied cyber-terrorists can do more with a computer virus than what a physical terrorist can do with a multi-engine aircraft. Let me repeat: the politician implied a virus can do more than what happened to the World Trade Center. He didn't bother to explain why terrorists continue to give up their lives in elaborate aircraft-skyscraper projects...

David L. Smith will eventually rot in prison for years for writing the Melissa virus. The terrorists' associates will likewise rot in prison for years for annihilating the World Trade Center. "I'll teach you how to crash a plane into a skyscraper if you teach me how to write a Microsoft Word macro virus..."

Folks, I don't mean to belittle the World Trade Center catastrophe. It was belittled years ago by all the computer virus hysteria we've suffered. The Code Red worm doesn't compare to 6,000 body bags in New York City. The ILoveYou virus doesn't compare to a plane crashing into the Pentagon. All viruses & hacking, combined, couldn't hold a candle to the implosion of both World Trade Center towers.