The administration’s war against a bogus threat. Seemingly innocuous movies occasionally have nasty, unintended consequences. Jaws creator Peter Benchley, for example, believes his tale of underwater mayhem has driven mankind to hunt several lethal shark species to the brink of extinction. Jodie Foster’s bawdy turn in Taxi Driver helped stir would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. to violence. And the 1983 Matthew Broderick vehicle WarGames convinced everyone that a lone hacker can wipe out the West Coast as easily as booting up Excel. How else to explain the credulity with which the Bush administration’s National Strategy To Secure Cyberspace was greeted last month? The 76-page document is chock full of what computer-security experts term “FUD”—geek shorthand for spreading bogus “fear, uncertainty, and doubt.” Never mind that the hype over alleged “cyberterrorism” has been thoroughly debunked, time and time again. The government’s information technology sages still trot out dubious stats in support of a looming “cyberwar,” claiming that hostile nations possess legions of computer-savvy shock troops ready to knock out New York’s electricity, zap the nation’s phone lines, or open up the Hoover Dam. Yet here we are in 2003, and the cyberterrorism casualty list is still barren. Full Story
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