9/11 and Cyberterrorism: Did the real “cyber 9/11″ happen on 9/11?
James Corbett - 17 July, 2009
Government sources immediately began blaming North Korea for the recent cyberterror attacks on South Korea and the U.S., despite having no evidence to back up those claims. Now, an examination of the evidence by independent computer experts show that the attack seems to have been coordinated from the UK. The hysterical media coverage in the attack's wake, however, echoing the government line that it was likely the work of North Korea, served to cement in the minds of many that this was an act of cyberwarfare.
The idea that this surprisingly unsophisticated attack could have come from a well-organized, hostile state or terrorist group comes as a blessing in disguise to those groups, agencies and advisors who have been calling for greater and greater federal snooping powers in the name of stopping a "cyber 9/11" from happening.
The "cyber 9/11" meme stretches back almost to 9/11 itself. Back in 2003, Mike McConnell, the ex-director of the National Security Agency (NSA), was fearmongering over the possibility of a cyber attack "equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Center" if a new institution were not created to oversee cyber security. Since then, report after report has continued to use the horror of 9/11 as a way of raising public hysteria over "cyber terrorism," a subject more often associated with juvenile hackers and lone misfits than radical terrorist organizations.


July 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
It’s a shame people try to take things we do need, like security, and turn it into excuses to remove our rights. As Thomas Jefferson said “those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.”