On 8 Jul 96 at 14:10, winn@Infowar.Com wrote: [..]
Historically, civil defense has meant to protect citizenry against hostile military actions. Today, with the specter of Information Warfare representing new challenges to late-industrial and information age nation-states, the rules [..] Are these really "new" challenges?
- The Power grid is the basis of most of modern society. With it gone, not much else happens. If you think this is just a matter of building more generators, think again--what happens if the factories that *make* the generators are taken down, too?
You haven't lived in a hurricane prone area and lost your electricity for most of a month, have you? Many of the generators are already in place. The power grid is not centralised, so it's difficult to take down everything for a long period of time (long enough to be truly detrimental to a lot of people) quickly enough (that would require some non-informational real-life bombing and warfare).
- The Communications infrastructure: land, sea, air and satellite. 95% military communications go over the public networks, and 100% of all financial and industrial communications. Is it worth protecting?
Is it so easy to take a whole network down? What about various radio operations (HAMs, Marineband, FM, etc.)? And don't forget automobiles and roads as last-resort communications.
- The Global Financial structure depends upon the first two infrastructures, and is perhaps the most vulnerable to theft and denial of service attack. 99+% of all "wealth" is digital--what happens if it vaporizes?
I'm skeptical of that figure (many institutions maintain several printouts and have contingencies to do things by hand... for no other reason than computers go down without human interference).
- Transportation systems rely upon the other three. The air traffic [..]
Not really. Automobiles and buses rely on very little. In major disasters there are ways to keep limited air and train traffic running.
Without all of these infrastructures properly and reliably functioning, the private sector and the national security community cannot function. No heat, no [..]
You sound as if you have not been in a place hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, major floods, etc. These cause much more damange to infrastructures as well as human life than any organized action could, save for an all-out physical war. Life still manages to go on.
air conditioning, no food distribution, no light, no radio or TV, no Internet. Are we prepared? Do we have a a crisis response for the day money as we know it vanishes?
Isn't that what FEMA is for? Do you want FEMA involved with the 'net? Or would you rather get the DoD, NSA, FBI also involved with "Emergency Management"?!?
Electronic Civil Defense will soon become a critical component of any nation's well being while the needs of both the private sector and government converge. The convergence of military and civilian interests that Mr. Schwartau predicted
Yes... it's called key escrow.
two years ago is happening before our eyes. Defensive and commercial postures have so intertwined as to make them indistinguishable.
That still implies empowering the state rather than allowing entities (individuals and corporations) to protect themselves. I'm skeptical of much of the InfoWar hype. Yes, there are important security issues (data integrity and preservation). But these also cross over with non-info disaster preparations. I also question whether large corporations and banks have compatible interests with individuals. It seems entirely possible that measures could be taken to protect the former at the expense of the latter. It's also dangerous to give LEA's another bogeyman to use. Very dangerous. Rob --- No-frills sig. Befriend my mail filter by sending a message with the subject "send help" Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl@unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.