cyber-"terrorism"?

[iriXx]

hi,

a small question slightly related to the BIOS security problem, as this
seems to be the most appropriate place... 

i'm currently writing a section of my book on the propoganda surrounding
digital security, in particular the word 'cyber-terrorism'. i'm
wondering, theoretically, how possible and how likely a cyber-terrorist
attack would be... or if it is rhetoric being stirred up by companies
such as Microsoft in order to scare businesses into buying their
'solutions'?... which certainly seems to be happening, Microsoft has
adopted the language in declaring a 'war on hostile code' - which
implies that anyone producing trojan code is automatically a
'terrorist'... the Bush administration certainly seems to be keen on
this approach too, according to Declan McCullagh's article of 16
september on C-net (i'm looking at my downloaded copy at the moment but
can provide a URL if you are interested).. 

what i'm wondering is - is it *really* possible to make a concerted
cyber-terrorist attack via the internet? or is this just rhetoric -
would it actually be quite difficult to create more than just an
annoying series of viruses like Klez - damaging, but not *that* level of
damage... would cyber-terrorism be too 

a) dectectable, given the amount of effort it would take not only to
create global DoS attacks but to cover their tracks... 

and b) difficult to organise given that an increasing majority of major
internet servers run free / open source software on less vulnerable
platforms?

or am i being naive?....

many thanks

m


-- 
iriXx
www.iriXx.org

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