Searching for WMDs in cyberspace

Hardly a day goes by without the media producing yet another  story about the inevitability of an all-out cyberwar putting an end to all life on Earth. It appears that even the United Nations have bought into this doomsday scenario. According to a recent report in New Scientist: "…last month UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon revealed ...

Hardly a day goes by without the media producing yet another  story about the inevitability of an all-out cyberwar putting an end to all life on Earth. It appears that even the United Nations have bought into this doomsday scenario. According to a recent report in New Scientist:

Hardly a day goes by without the media producing yet another  story about the inevitability of an all-out cyberwar putting an end to all life on Earth. It appears that even the United Nations have bought into this doomsday scenario. According to a recent report in New Scientist:

"…last month UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon revealed that cyber-weapons are to be added to the list of arms falling under the remit of the UN’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, which develops policy on weapons of mass destruction. Ban said recent breaches of critical systems represent "a clear and present threat to international security", since the public and private sectors have grown increasingly dependent on electronic information".

I’m puzzled by what exactly those "cyber-weapons" could be: we have barely seen them in action, but we are already preparing for disarmament. Would this make a modem count as a WMD? At least there definitely were some of those in Iraq…

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com
Tag: Space

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