Real War News: The US Is At War—It's WW-Cyber WWC, Not WWIII And It Will Destroy Humanity And Send Us Back To Caves (Picture, Video)

Conventional wisdom saw WWIII as a punishing ground war, augmented with nukes. That just isn’t so. Our nation is at war; reality is: this nation survives via information networks—networks that support our power grid, support our military, banking system, and federal government operations. The future of this country rides on information—clean, consistent, secure information.

Our putative enemies and rival superpower—China, has squadrons of cyber warriors tasked with bringing the nation down by detracting our computer network infrastructure. That’s our power grid, government personnel network, military and business networks.

Can you imagine a day when the banks can’t operate because their computer networks don’t work, when Social Security checks, military payroll systems fail because of cyber war? Or when traffic lights, electric power utilities fail because cyber terrorists compromised them?

The ucoming and current conflicts aren’t your pappy ‘s wars—these wars will confound you and youir grandchildren. One online dictionary defines cyberwar as:

The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes:cyberwar is asymmetric, which means it benefits lesser military powers as much as militarygoliaths  

The early rays of the weak winter sun have yet to seep through the dense morning fog as the first attacks strike San Francisco.

     Power is the first to go, stilling electrical equipment and draping the city in a carpet of darkness. Electric Muni buses stall in the streets. Lacking control signals with which to operate, Southern Pacific trains sit motionless on their tracks. The Bank of America tower, Transamerica Pyramid and other skyscrapers hang over the city like shadowed spires, towering monuments from an age past.

     Attempts to use smart phones yield only the wailing cadence of circuits-busy signals. Land lines, cable and Internet transmissions have vanished as though they never existed, reducing television and computer screens to blank, darkened slates of glass. Only battery-powered devices cling on to their electronic lives, although without connection. It is a world where Internet connections no longer exist.

     Anxious residents cluster in small groups in the streets outside their homes, hands stuffed in jacket pockets for warmth. As to whether they had experienced an earthquake – they thought not. Nor were there claims of having heard explosions. Many clutch laptops, iPads and smart phones, anxiously searching for answers. But answers were not to come.

     The absence of sound envelopes them like a cloak. Conversations turn from nervous banter to speculation, whispers of possibilities, but to no result except to feed a spreading dread of events imagined but not known, growing fears felt but not spoken.

Residents toss personal belongings into their vehicles and rush to leave the city, only to find bridges and arteries out of San Francisco barricaded by armed squads of National Guardsmen. 

Whether it involves the Office of Personnel Management, the IRS or Department of the Navy, few days go by without news of new cyberattacks against the United States.

Perhaps because there are few examples, little is said about theconsequences to the assailants from such attacks.

The Preface of “Aftershock, A Novel” [see image on right] previews a possible scenario of consequences which occur at the highest levels when cyberattack response spins out of control. In today’s ever-present cyber-threat environment, this description is worth reading, particularly the foreshadowing presented in the final paragraph.  SOURCE

What makes today’s issues of cyber security different than any other threat we’ve faced as a nation? Co-director of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation Amy Zegart lays out the five reasons cyberwar is a whole new world.

Amy Zegart is the co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and the Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Amy Zegart’s research interests include intelligence agencies, organizational dynamics and national security, and Zegart is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.. The National Journal featured her as among the 10 most influential experts in intelligence reform. Zegart served on the Clinton administration’s National Security Council staff and as a foreign policy adviser to the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign A former Fulbright scholar, Zegart received a bachelor of arts degree in East Asian studies magna cum laude from Harvard University and a masters degree and doctorate in political science from Stanford.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more