Forwarded from: Dan Verton <Dan_Vertonat_private> Let me set the record straight for the naysayers. As a former intelligence officer, I am certainly not one to overstate cyber events. However, here are the facts, a few of which I have agreed not to disclose publicly (so I'll have to walk around them). First of all, the "deaf, dumb and blind" analogy is no overstatement. This is from an interview with a senior official who was with the president at the time of the attacks. I have agreed not to disclose the details for national security reasons. The implications of the damage at the WTC are in no way overstated. All infrastructure is regional. And the main switching station in NYC was a key facility, the loss of which the US national security community has never before had to deal with -- this comes directly from the director of the National Communications System. If you know anything about national security, you would know the importance of keeping the financial markets online. Each day they remained down (with the notable exception of NASDAQ), was one day closer to reaching a much worse disaster for the country. The president himself called the director of the NCS and ordered that Wall Street be placed as the next priority behind search and rescue. While it is true that other parts of the country were relatively unaffected, that in now way diminishes the threat that faced the nation due to the comms destruction at the WTC sight, nor does it account for the mass confusion and blindness [my words, based on confidential interviews] that the national command authority was dealing with on that day. Dan Verton InfoSec News <isnat_private> on 03/09/2002 04:49:00 AM Please respond to InfoSec News <isnat_private> To: isnat_private cc: (bcc: Dan Verton/Computerworld) Subject: RE: [ISN] Digital Destruction Was Worst Imaginable Forwarded from: covert_one <covert_oneat_private> I wholly disagree with Rob's comments, or at least his cut and paste of some sentator's comment. (we call this FUD, fear, uncertainy, and dispair, I sometimes call it Fu-ked Up Data) The problems of cellular communications during the WTC event was due to a massive amount of traffic, the problems of being unable to reach officers in the tower was due to field radio ranges, inside a building and 80 stories up. But to claim that the entire US was blind, deaf during the event is a massive overstatement. How did I get to watch the second airplane hit the second tower live? Television. Did I have any problems using my cellphone, a landline, or using a radio or television in Michigan at 9:10am on 9/11? Nope. I know of employees that managed to call loved ones in NYC, and even a person five miles from the penatgon with no problems on the landlines and cellular. More people hit the internet during this time for news reports as this event unfolded. [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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