A number of years ago, a frequently aired TV commercial had Kathie Lee Gifford belting out a commercial rip-off of the song “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from the Broadway show “Sweet Charity.” It went like this: “If they could see me now, out on a fun ship cruise, eatin’ fancy foods and doin’ what I choose/ I’d like my friends back home to get a good look at the first-rate Carnival Cruise that I took …”
In today’s far more connected world, some recent Carnival Cruise revelers could indeed be seen by their friends – sprawled miserably on the decks of their foul-smelling, sweltering “fun ship” after being driven from their staterooms by overflowing toilets and lack of air conditioning, eating cold onion sandwiches. They were utterly unable to do what they’d all undoubtedly have chosen, which was to vacate the voyage of the damned on which they found themselves temporarily stranded.
Viewing this sorry spectacle, you might be inclined to ask how yet another of these monumental maritime pleasure palaces, complete with all the supposed resort-type amenities one might possibly want while on vacation, could be suddenly transformed into a fetid, sewage-polluted, totally untenable hell-on-water by an engine fire that reportedly resulted from a mere leak in a fuel line. To which my answer would be “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
For the fact is that the very technology that enables us to “get a good look” at what people we know, and don’t know, are currently experiencing at sea on our computer screens, smart phones and other electronic devices is also what controls most of our land-based creature comforts and conveniences, as well as our very security. And all it would take to indefinitely incapacitate those things we so depend on – to render our daily lives as “out of order” as the commodes on the Carnival Triumph – would be a successful act of sabotage from afar known as a cyber attack.
While the sight of disabled cruise ships is becoming an all-too-familiar one to the public, a real, full-blown assault on the circuitry that regulates our society’s vital functions is something we haven’t yet seen or experienced. True, we’ve had our share of “hack attacks,” such as the recent ones on six of the country’s major financial institutions. But there has been nothing like the kind of techno-tampering that might be capable of disrupting our entire infrastructure, meaning everything from the power grid to transportation and communications networks to dams and pipelines to water supplies. And that’s to say nothing of hampering our ability to spend hours playing Farmville and arguing with total strangers on Facebook.
As a result, most of us are no more concerned about the possible consequences of cyberterrorism than we are, or were, about the prospect of a rock from outer space suddenly exploding over our heads. But the fact remains that both are real threats to our safety. Just as there are probably hundreds of thousands of boulders traveling faster than speeding bullets through the great blue yonder, so there are likely any number of people out there who, for a variety of motivations ranging from militancy to malicious mischief, would like nothing better than to plunge our civilization into a contemporary version of the Dark Ages. And some of these people possess the technological expertise to pull it off.
That’s why the Chinese People’s Liberation Army – or more precisely, the operatives of PLA Unit 61398 – may have actually done us a huge favor by systematically hacking into the computer operations of various American corporations, such as defense contractor Lockheed Martin and various U.S. government agencies, as they’ve recently been accused of doing.
While these alleged cyberintrusions, if they did in fact occur (which the government of the People’s Republic of China officially denies), were undoubtedly carried out for the purpose of obtaining confidential data and corporate trade secrets, it seems rather doubtful that the Chinese, now major trading partners to whom we are heavily indebted, would have any intentions of shutting down our ability to function, let alone do business.
Nevertheless, according to The New York Times, “(w)hat most worries American investigators is that the latest set of attacks believed coming from Unit 61398 focus not just on stealing information, but obtaining the ability to manipulate American critical infrastructure: the power grids and other utilities.”
And that’s really good news. Because, whether or not such Sinophobic concerns have any basis in current reality, the very fact that they’re being raised indicates that we may finally be giving a genuine threat to our security the attention it deserves. And just in the nick of time at that, given the rethinking of so-called “defense spending” that the upcoming “sequester” will necessitate.
Up until now, not only has the Pentagon been hogging the lion’s share of our collective tax collections, but using it for dubious defensive measures, from elaborate, overpriced weapons and delivery systems that were totally ineffective against terrorists armed with crude bombs and box cutters to futile military adventures abroad that have succeeded mainly in turning an awful lot of foreigners into America-haters. But now, thanks in no small part to the Chinese having reportedly invaded our cyberspace, it’s just possible that the people in command will do an about-face, dispense with some of the sham shields they’ve been splurging on, and concentrate on shoring up the technological barriers that stand between us and large-scale paralysis.
Admittedly, the hour is already late, with resources now more limited than ever. But, just as was the case once we entered World War II, there’s a lot of help that could be quickly recruited for this effort. I’m talking about the legions of adolescents and twenty-somethings who are highly proficient in all aspects of computer technology and who would no doubt be more than willing to volunteer their services and talents in defense of their country. Such an army of “cyberspace cadets” could be rapidly raised and deployed to spot emerging threats just as amateur astronomers are now being relied on by NASA to monitor the heavens for menacing meteors and asteroids.
But if we don’t act with all due haste to deliver ourselves from the kind of crippling, complete and utter breakdown that could strike us with as much warning as the passengers aboard that ill-fated Carnival Cruise received, we may soon find ourselves longing for the days when the only thing delaying the progress of our ship of state was a mere monetary mess.
Bill Bonvie is a freelance writer based in Little Egg Harbor Township and a frequent contributor to this section.
Source Article from http://thesandpaper.villagesoup.com/p/triumph-fiasco-shows-our-techno-fallibility/967425
