Keystrokes to Catastrophe
4 Out Of 5 Stars
Richard Clarke has been there and done that. Appointed by Reagan, serving under Bush One and Clinton and then marginalized by Bush Two (the way the shoved aside anyone who dealt with Clinton), only to see his ignored expertise come to life as 9/11. So yes, he has something of an axe to grind. And "Cyber War" takes more than a few whacks at his final employers, and again exposes Bush/Cheney as agenda whores and the looming threat of Cyber War as something maybe we should all be alarmed over.
More frightening than anything else in this book are the examples that Cyber Warfare is already being practiced: The Russians bombarding Georgia and all but paralyzing that nation for a period, the Israeli's blocking radars with fake images while running a bombing mission, a viral triggered refinery explosion against the Russians after they got caught stealing software, so we planted destructive orders into a handed off "secret." As Clarke points out, the likelihood that China or Russia already has malware or 'logic bombs' buried inside our infrastructure isn't just a remote chance. It's probably already Fait accompli. It may even be in the home computer you're reading this review on, if you've inadvertently downloaded a botnet relayer.
Clarke forcibly argues for stepping up the game. Richard Clarke has been there and done that. Appointed by Reagan, serving under Bush One and Clinton and then marginalized by Bush Two (the way the shoved aside anyone who dealt with Clinton), only to see his ignored expertise come to life as 9/11. So yes, he has something of an axe to grind. And "Cyber War" takes more than a few whacks at his final employers, and again exposes Bush/Cheney as agenda whores and the looming threat of Cyber War as something maybe we should all be alarmed over.
More frightening than anything else in this book are the examples that Cyber Warfare is already being practiced: The Russians bombarding Georgia and all but paralyzing that nation for a period, the Israeli's blocking radars with fake images while running a bombing mission, a viral triggered refinery explosion against the Russians after they got caught stealing software, so we planted destructive orders into a handed off "secret." As Clarke points out, the likelihood that China or Russia already has malware or 'logic bombs' buried inside our infrastructure isn't just a remote chance. It's probably already Fait accompli. It may even be in the home computer you're reading this review on, if you've inadvertently downloaded a botnet relayer.
I found it astonishing that our government uses less virus protection on some of it's systems than most home computer users. Or that, in almost every exercise where the government attempts to test security (be it wall street, power companies, or the Department of Defense), the hackers always succeeded. The general thought is that - much like in the world before 9/11 - it's not a question of if a cyber attack will happen, it's a question of when. His many suggestions (a stronger Government R&D into tech security, actual international discussions into cyber warfare rules, more forceful regulation on ISP's) may seem like hubris to some, but more like common sense to me. "Cyber War" may not keep you awake at night, but it may ramp up your techie paranoia level.
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