Cyberterror Not Yet a Credible Threat, Says Policy Thinktank 165
Trailrunner7 writes "A new report by a Washington policy think tank dismisses out of hand the idea that terrorist groups are currently launching cyber attacks and says that the recent attacks against US and South Korean networks were not damaging enough to be considered serious incidents. The report, written by James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, looks at cyberwar through the prism of the Korean attacks, and calls the idea that terrorists have attack capabilities and just aren't using them 'nonsensical.' 'A very rough estimate would say that there is a lag of three and eight years between the capabilities developed by advanced intelligence agencies and the capabilities available for purchase or rental in the cybercrime black market. The evidence for this is partial and anecdotal, but the trend has been consistent for more two decades,' Lewis writes."
Re:That's Why We Must Be Proactive now (Score:3, Informative)
It's not only what's happening with Middle-East. For example IRA [wikipedia.org], which is considered as terrorism group in the UK, "sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion.". Not knowing fully whats behind it, but it seems they have a clear purpose that isn't so irrational (and didn't the area used to belong to Ireland people before?). Obviously even you must understand that they're not causing "terror" just for the fun of it, but have some agenda do so (usually so they can get people to hear their agenda, what the goverment doesn't allow)
Re:bring back the pr0n! (Score:2, Informative)
Not to belabor the point, as he is already rather overexposed, but Bruce Schneier repeatedly makes the point that funding good investigative police work is also an effective measure (because it is often the case that the bad guys are making mistakes, regardless of the particular vector they have chosen to focus on).