Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins of George Mason University published a new paper "
Loving the Cyber Bomb? The Dangers of Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity Policy" examining the parallels with the US military's other recent exaggerations.
"Cybersecurity is an important policy issue, but the alarmist rhetoric coming out of Washington that focuses on worst-case scenarios is unhelpful and dangerous. Aspects of current cyber policy discourse parallel the run-up to the Iraq War and pose the same dangers. Pre-war threat inflation and conflation of threats led us into war on shaky evidence. By focusing on doomsday scenarios and conflating cyber threats, government officials threaten to legislate, regulate, or spend in the name of cybersecurity based largely on fear, misplaced rhetoric, conflated threats, and credulous reporting. The public should have access to classified evidence of cyber threats, and further examination of the risks posed by those threats, before sound policies can be proposed, let alone enacted. ...
No one wants a “cyber Katrina” or a “digital Pearl Harbor.” But honestly assessing cyber threats and appropriate responses does not mean that we have to learn to stop worrying and love the cyber bomb."
posted by RSaunders
on Apr 28, 2011 -
17 comments
A
proposal for U.S. defense contractors HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies, and Berico Technologies to discredit Wikileaks which was pitched to Bank of America on December 3rd has been
leaked. Assange had perviously stated that Wikileaks' next mega-leak will "expose an ecosystem of corruption" in a major American bank, which
many believe to be Bank of America.
[more inside]
posted by jeffburdges
on Feb 10, 2011 -
218 comments
Ballmer: Linux Users Owe Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle yesterday, that Linux infringes upon his company's intellectual property. Does this signal preparations for all out war against the
open source community? Microsoft's recent
acquisition of Novell was seen as an ominous sign. Or perhaps it's a sign that user friendly versions of linux such as
Ubuntu threaten sales of Microsoft's
problematic new VISTA OS, scheduled for release Nov. 30th for businesses and Jan. 30, 2007 for consumers?
posted by Skygazer
on Nov 17, 2006 -
79 comments
These guys are pretty upset. Symantec's new Internet Security suite combines a firewall, anti-virus utility, and content-filtering parental controls in one package. And guess what? When a user sets the filter to block "Weapons" sites, it blocks NRA pages!
Internet Security 2004 isn't really the issue, however. It's a (large) "community" once again overreacting, spreading
FUD about rights being taken away, political brainwashing, and the world coming to an end.
Or, this is just the best. troll. ever. You decide.
posted by bhayes82
on Nov 2, 2003 -
41 comments
Opportunism in FUD? Once a term used only for Microsoft, it seems
FUD is a common problem these days. The linked site is decidedly anti-MS and seems to be appropriating FUD for their own ends.
When someone uses the WTC tragedy to try and discredit their opponent in a technical debate have they gone too far?
posted by soulhuntre
on Sep 16, 2001 -
5 comments
