Wired Opinion: Cyberwar Is the New Yellowcake

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http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/yellowcake-and-cyberwar/

By Jerry Brito and Tate Watkins
Threat Level
Wired.com
February 14, 2012

In last month=E2=80=99s State of the Union address, President Obama calle=
d on=20
Congress to pass =E2=80=9Clegislation that will secure our country from t=
he=20
growing dangers of cyber threats.=E2=80=9D The Hill was way ahead of him,=
 with=20
over 50 cybersecurity bills introduced this Congress. This week, both=20
the House and Senate are moving on their versions of consolidated,=20
comprehensive legislation.

The reason cybersecurity legislation is so pressing, proponents say, is=20
that we face an immediate risk of national disaster.

=E2=80=9CToday=E2=80=99s cyber criminals have the ability to interrupt li=
fe-sustaining=20
services, cause catastrophic economic damage, or severely degrade the=20
networks our defense and intelligence agencies rely on,=E2=80=9D Senate C=
ommerce=20
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said at a hearing last=20
week. =E2=80=9CCongress needs to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legis=
lation=20
immediately.=E2=80=9D

Yet evidence to sustain such dire warnings is conspicuously absent. In=20
many respects, rhetoric about cyber catastrophe resembles threat=20
inflation we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War. And while Congress=E2=80=99=
=20
passing of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation wouldn=E2=80=99t lead =
to war,=20
it could saddle us with an expensive and overreaching cyber-industrial=20
complex.

In 2002 the Bush administration sought to make the case that Iraq=20
threatened its neighbors and the United States with weapons of mass=20
destruction (WMD). By framing the issue in terms of WMD, the=20
administration conflated the threats of nuclear, biological, and=20
chemical weapons. The destructive power of biological and chemical=20
weapons=E2=80=94while no doubt horrific=E2=80=94is minor compared to that=
 of nuclear=20
detonation. Conflating these threats, however, allowed the=20
administration to link the unlikely but serious threat of a nuclear=20
attack to the more likely but less serious threat posed by biological=20
and chemical weapons.

[...]


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