Truth About Computer Security Hysteria

A physical terrorist killed another cyber-terrorism expert

LET'S ROLL BACK the clock to a column I wrote almost exactly one year ago:

A serial sniper put a bullet through the head of FBI NIPC cyber-analyst Linda Franklin. The ironies abound.

[Virginia's then-governor James] Gilmore's written testimony [to a House committee] noted the ironic death of one of his cyber-security analysts in the World Trade Center attack. Still, he urged Congress to establish a "Cyber Court" in an effort to save the Internet from the ravages of Osama bin Virus. And then — even more ironically — the governor and everyone else fled the congressional building because of an anthrax scare.

The ironies abound.

I don't enjoy making jokes at a time like this, and so I won't. I don't enjoy pointing out the ironies at a time like this, either ... but I get paid to do a job, and I intend to do it. First: a single bullet took out more "computing" power at FBI NIPC than a cyber-terrorist could ever hope to achieve. Second: this assassination inflicted a quantifiable, tangible damage both in terms of money (e.g. casualty insurance) and lost manpower, which is something the FBI and the White House cannot quantify when it comes to the non-existent cyber-terrorism they fear so much.

Third: if a sniper pumped a bullet into Franklin's computer CPU, she could requisition another computer from FBI NIPC and then restore her data from backups. Then senator Charles "digital armageddon" Schumer (D-NY) could whine about E-rab cyber-terror conspiracies and cyber-Chink covert operations.

Unfortunately, someone pumped a bullet into Franklin's all-too-human CPU. I paraphrase myself from another column I wrote last year when I say I would gladly throw away the entire Internet just to reinstall Franklin as easily as we reinstall an operating system.

People shouldn't have to die just so I can point out the ironies of our government's "cyber-terrorism" fetish. Yet people all too often die violently from everything except cyber-terrorism ... and I get paid to point out the irony & absurdity of it all.

I offer only my most sincere condolences to Franklin's family, and to the family of Ray Downey (Gilmore's cyber-terror colleague who died in the World Trade Center attack). I mourn for you.

IF FBI NIPC does its job correctly (notice I said "correctly"), they'll impound Franklin's office PC in order to search for possible clues to her killer. Did he fire off an email before firing a bullet, perchance?

A single bullet took out more "computing" power at FBI NIPC than any cyber-terrorist could ever hope to achieve...

Call it a fishing expedition if you wish. Call it a wild goose chase if you wish. The beltway desperately wants to find any clues to end these serial killings, and so I believe FBI NIPC will ask Franklin's widower to turn over her home PC. More power to 'em, I say! Who knows? They might actually find a clue on her Palm Pilot that leads to her killer.

Then again, they might put quasi-FBI profiler Vincent Rowe in charge of the cyber-investigation. Ugh! I imagine he'll get sidetracked with anger the moment he finds an email with "Rob Rosenberger" in it. I'll leave the rest unsaid.

I'll wrap up this column with a brand-new quote from a White House flunky. " 'We have a great deal of focus nowadays on weapons of mass destruction but we need to be aware of the proliferation in cyberspace of weapons of mass disruption,' Howard Schmidt told Reuters in an interview..."

A sniper's rifle qualifies as a "weapon of mass disruption," too. (Watch this movie if you need convincing.) And yet our beltway fetishists continue to equate cyber-terrorism with physical terrorism.

Memo to Schmidt: tell it to Franklin's widower.

[continued in part 2]