Even though this was decided in June, we’re just now hearing the story that Bush Orders Guidelines for Cyber-Warfare. This includes the command that our military figure out how to take down any country’s computer networks at any time.
At first glance, it’s a little scary. Do we really want the U.S. government figuring out how to shut down any computer system they want? What’s to stop them from using that on selected systems here? I know, I know it’s conspiracy theory junk, but it’s still a little creepy to think that we’re paying government employees to do worse things to computer systems than Kevin Mitnick. (Of course, we pay them to kill people, too, so what the hell.)
At the same time, all’s fair in love and war. It’s the military’s job to figure out how to take out an enemy’s computer-controlled radar, missile and communications systems. If that saves the lives of American soldiers in battle, I say, “Amen!”
I do like one of the comments I saw on ZDNet, though: “So, if they find out that Linux is super secure, will Bush start claiming that the open source movement is un-American?”
Kevin didn’t do anything but break in. He wasn’t malicious.
Ok, as soon as Bush knows how to SAY “Linux” and “Open Source” with any understanding of what either is, I’ll worry.
All Microsoft systems, of course, are totally and utterly patriotic (i.e., crackable and open to worms).