Truth About Computer Security Hysteria
A physical terrorist killed another cyber-terrorism expert
Rob Rosenberger, Vmyths co-founderTuesday, 15 October 2002
LET'S ROLL BACK the clock to a column I wrote almost exactly one year ago:
| A serial sniper put a bullet through the head of FBI NIPC cyber-analyst Linda Franklin. The ironies abound. |
[Virginia's then-governor James] Gilmore's written testimony [to a House committee] noted the ironic death of one of his cyber-security analysts in the World Trade Center attack. Still, he urged Congress to establish a "Cyber Court" in an effort to save the Internet from the ravages of Osama bin Virus. And then — even more ironically — the governor and everyone else fled the congressional building because of an anthrax scare.That was last year's irony. Now let's roll forward to the present. Perhaps you've heard of a sniper making the rounds along the D.C. beltway? His latest victim was FBI NIPC cyber-analyst Linda Franklin. A single shot splattered her brains onto her husband's feet as they stood in a parking lot. The ironies abound. I don't enjoy making jokes at a time like this, and so I won't. I don't enjoy pointing out the ironies at a time like this, either ... but I get paid to do a job, and I intend to do it. First: a single bullet took out more "computing" power at FBI NIPC than a cyber-terrorist could ever hope to achieve. Second: this assassination inflicted a quantifiable, tangible damage both in terms of money (e.g. casualty insurance) and lost manpower, which is something the FBI and the White House cannot quantify when it comes to the non-existent cyber-terrorism they fear so much. Third: if a sniper pumped a bullet into Franklin's computer CPU, she could requisition another computer from FBI NIPC and then restore her data from backups. Then senator Charles "digital armageddon" Schumer (D-NY) could whine about E-rab cyber-terror conspiracies and cyber-Chink covert operations. Unfortunately, someone pumped a bullet into Franklin's all-too-human CPU. I paraphrase myself from another column I wrote last year when I say I would gladly throw away the entire Internet just to reinstall Franklin as easily as we reinstall an operating system. People shouldn't have to die just so I can point out the ironies of our government's "cyber-terrorism" fetish. Yet people all too often die violently from everything except cyber-terrorism ... and I get paid to point out the irony & absurdity of it all. I offer only my most sincere condolences to Franklin's family, and to the family of Ray Downey (Gilmore's cyber-terror colleague who died in the World Trade Center attack). I mourn for you.
IF FBI NIPC does its job correctly (notice I said "correctly"), they'll impound Franklin's office PC in order to search for possible clues to her killer. Did he fire off an email before firing a bullet, perchance?
| A single bullet took out more "computing" power at FBI NIPC than any cyber-terrorist could ever hope to achieve... |