Originally Posted by
MDS
The obvious answer is a meme of Inigo Montoya's famous quote. But the truth is that no one knows how this whole cyber thing will evolve. There are those who think of "cyber" as another domain of warfare. If so, consider other warfare domains, and how they've evolved over time. Planes were originally used exclusively for recon. The though of aerial combat was so alien, that enemy pilots would wave at each other and etc. Then one day a pilot dropped, what? A stick of TNT? Anyway, aerial bombardment was born. Then a clever fellow stopped an bombing run with his, what? Mosin Nagant? Anyway, dog fighting was born. Leading-edge, creative, hacked-together uses for a fledgling new war domain. Yet today, dog-fights are, like, non existent or close enough. Who could imagine the bombing munitions of today? And who could imagine that an even more important benefit of air superiority would be logistical flexibility? It's a deep discussion and I'm not doing it justice, but hopefully we can agree that new "war domains" evolve in unexpected, unimaginable ways.
So, yeah. Today we see everything from simple theft a-la credit card fraud, to grass-roots political hacktivism, to organized professional "hacklers" financed by nation-states. And we can recognize a trend towards the deep financial impact that can be achieved with cyber superiority. But unlike the other, more mature warfare domains, we're foolish to think we can read the signs of cyber activity like we can read troop movements or naval strategery or even satellite positioning. Sony may very well be canceling a movie in order to literally continue existing as a viable business. It wouldn't be the first time.
So when someone makes demands by holding hostage your very existence - or, at least, the very livelihood of many employees - I don't think it's too far out there to call it terrorism. I know that doesn't quite sound right. Because the thing is, the conceptual frameworks we have to think about crime and terrorism and war need to evolve to include the new relationships and activities and consequences that are possible now. We need to take a step back and think about our thinking, before we can really think productively about the Sony situation.
I'll stop now, because I notice I'm ranting. It's something I feel a little passionate about. I'd hate for us to be left behind the 8-ball as the cyber domain evolves around us...