Cyber-terrorism equivalent tornado damage

Rob Rosenberger, Vmyths co-founder
Thursday, 8 May 2003

"IT WAS A night of terror across a broad band of middle America and the southeast," reported a somber Tom Brokaw on NBC's Nightly News. "And tonight, the grim inventory of death & destruction ... is staggering. The death toll is more than thirty," Brokaw told his viewers.

A cyber-terrorist will someday match the wrath of a single tornado! Remote-control terrorism of this magnitude keeps our cyber-saviors up at night, you know...

"Cyber-terrorists, Rob?" Nope. Just one of the thousands of tornadoes seen in the U.S. every year. Bear with me, folks: this tragedy leads to computer virus hysteria.

According to a story in The Commercial Appeal, Mother Nature racked up quite a bit of cyber-terrorism equivalent damage in Tennessee:

[It] destroyed or heavily damaged a fire station, water plant, the main Post Office, the 911 center, at least one school, a 19th Century church and one of the area's largest industrial employers. The federal and Madison County courthouses were damaged, as was the City Hall that serves a population of almost 60,000... With electrical services out for nearly 30,000 homes and businesses, authorities in this city 65 miles northeast of Memphis ordered curfews, set up roadblocks and issued boil-water advisories...
Fire stations were distributing fresh water. Officials said it might be several days before electrical service had been restored to all customers. A city election, scheduled for today, has been postponed... Kyle Spurgeon, vice president of business development for the Jackson Energy Authority [said] "It took out our water system — that just doesn't happen..." [Yet] despite taking a "direct hit," the 911 center was handling calls.

So. What do I mean by a "cyber-terrorism equivalent" tornado? The explanation comes to us from former FBI NIPC director Ron Dick. A Sesame Street show on 'Cyber War!' quoted him as saying:

The thing that keeps me awake at night is a physical attack on a U.S. infrastructure which is combined with a cyber-attack which disrupts the ability of first responders to access 911 systems, [and] disrupts our power grid such that, again, first responders can't respond to an incident. Those are the things that keep me awake. And those are very real possibilities.

Well, well, well. Guess what? Mother Nature physically attacked numerous U.S. infrastructures and she disrupted the ability of first responders to access 911 systems. This one tornado devastated ATM machines, government services, an emergency call center, a fire station, a vital electrical power grid, and a vital water supply. Oh, and it killed some people, too.

I'LL GRUDGINGLY ADMIT a cyber-terrorist has never accomplished such an amazing feat with just a laptop. In fact I'll admit a cyber-terrorist has never even tried such an amazing digital feat.

"Not yet," anyway.

I assure you a cyber-terrorist will someday match the wrath of a single tornado! Remote-control terrorism of this magnitude keeps Ron Dick up at night, you know.

Hmmm. When a natural disaster occurs in Tennessee, where will you find the cops & firefighters & national guardsmen? On the streets, of course — saving lives and cleaning up the debris. When the same natural disaster wipes out ATM machines and government services and 911 systems and power grids and water supplies, where will you find Ron Dick's alma mater? Sitting in front of their computers — watching Botswana's Internet pipe for possible acts of cyber-terrorism.

Remember Dick's words the next time you hear about those devastating cyber-bogeymen who lurk behind every tornado.