[ISN] So-called cyberattack was overblown

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/10/schneier/

By Bruce Schneier
Minnesota Public Radio
July 13, 2009

To hear the media tell it, the United States suffered a major 
cyberattack last week. Stories were everywhere. "Cyber Blitz hits U.S., 
Korea" was the headline in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. North Korea 
was blamed.

Where were you when North Korea attacked America? Did you feel the fury 
of North Korea's armies? Were you fearful for your country? Or did your 
resolve strengthen, knowing that we would defend our homeland bravely 
and valiantly?

My guess is that you didn't even notice, that - if you didn't open a 
newspaper or read a news website - you had no idea anything was 
happening. Sure, a few government websites were knocked out, but that's 
not alarming or even uncommon. Other government websites were attacked 
but defended themselves, the sort of thing that happens all the time. If 
this is what an international cyberattack looks like, it hardly seems 
worth worrying about at all.

Politically motivated cyber attacks are nothing new. We've seen U.K. vs. 
Ireland. Israel vs. the Arab states. Russia vs. several former Soviet 
Republics. India vs. Pakistan, especially after the nuclear bomb tests 
in 1998. China vs. the United States, especially in 2001 when a U.S. spy 
plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet. And so on and so on.

[...]


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