View of Cyber Terrorism from Taipei

The Taipei Times ran an editorial (by a US author) on they growing threat of cyber-terrorism. Unfortunately, for the most part it simply rehashed recent international cyber events such as the Russian-Georgia-Estonia conflict. However, the article's summary did make several good points:

"Governments can hope to deter cyber attacks just as they deter nuclear or other armed attacks. But deterrence requires a credible threat of response against an attacker. And that becomes much more difficult in a world where governments find it hard to tell where cyber attacks come from, whether from a hostile state or a group of criminals masking as a foreign government.

"While an international legal code that defines cyber attacks more clearly, together with cooperation on preventive measures, can help, such arms-control solutions are not likely to be sufficient. Nor will defensive measures like constructing electronic firewalls and creating redundancies in sensitive systems.

"Given the enormous uncertainties involved, the new cyber dimensions of security must be high on every government’s agenda."

Modern society faces growing cyber-terror threat