[snip]
On the substance of Schwartau's claims about "HERF guns," I'm a bit skeptical that this is a real threat _at this time_. I'll say more on this later.
So, why am I so skeptical? For a couple of reasons:
1. Conventional explosives work perfectly fine for a lot of sabotage efforts. It is unlikely that a mysterrious van is likely to be parked next to a London brokerage or computer firm in the City of London, given their history of terrorism.
Why bother with explosives when you can pull a manhole cover and climb down with a <insert power tool of choice here, I prefer the chainsaw myself>. All that copper/fiber has to run somewhere in the area to get into the buildings. When the conductor is gone say goodnight. Or the alternative, pour gas into the access covers and light it. Simple is better.
2. To be a credible threat, there usually needs to be some form of "demonstration." I have heard of no such thing. Absent such a public demonstration, I find it hard to believe that beancounters would OK the giving away of hundreds of millions of dollars for a threat which is abstract and hard to understand for laymen.
Short of a tac nuke there won't be one any time soon. The herf/emp/sci-fi weapon of choice is not feasible *at this time*. Remember the square law. If it isn't in the machine room, or damn close it won't work. One has to wonder why the assorted experts on this haven't built a working model and given a controlled demonstration.
3. This recent story smacks of hype. I'm not saying Schwartau is hyping his conferences and his book, and his consulting business, just saying it strikes me as a hyped threat without direct confirmation.
While the consultants are hypeing all this I have REAL threats to deal with.
--Tim May
P.S. I guess I'm going to have to get Eudora Pro so I can filter out the psychos 'R' us persona. ----- My opinions are my own, not those of my employer. Scott L. Morris smorri59@mailhost.icubed.net ** They can have my PGP key when they ** ** pry it from my cold dead keyboard! **