I had the chance to attend a lecture last night by Marcus Ranum on the subject of cyberterrorism. Ranum is the author of the book The Myth of Homeland Security.
Upon my arrival I quickly realized that I was entering a room full of college age kids and was in the minority of people over the age of thirty. Rannum began his lecture with stories of his experiences with airport security and how he really does feel any safer today than he did prior to 9/11. He than began to talk about hypothetical situations or pranks that one could pull in order to cause the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) a headache. I wonder how many of the college students in attendance may actually try some of his ideas out. It was at this point I began to wonder when he was going to start talk about cyberterrorism.
Ranum followed up his opening statements with what I can only describe as a rant of the obvious. He pointed out the bureaucratic mess that was caused as a result of 9/11. He reiterated the failures in the intelligence communities that have been well document over the past couple of years. I was glad to hear Mr. Ranum clearly state that he was not politically motivated and was happy to point out the failures on both sides of the aisle.
He made it a point to show specific portions of the Patriot Act that are clearly written as political pork as opposed to security. Ranum also repeatedly said do not take his word as the truth and encourage everyone to do their own research.
With twenty minutes left in the lecture the topic of cyberterrorism was finally touched upon. Ranum pointed out that the twenty-seven intelligence agencies on the US do not have compatible systems and still cannot share their data. Yes, this is a weakness and has been known for some time. He also stated that he does not feel that a large scale or coordinated attack would succeed against the IT infrastructure of the US. His thoughts are that this type of attack would only be a bump in the road.
While I was disappointed that the topic of cyberterrorism was only covered for a small fraction of the time the overall lecture was worth the time spent. I have not read Mr. Ranums book however, I plan on purchasing it.
To learn more about Marcus Ranum you can visit his website.