http://www.nwc.navy.mil/balkans/bc2j18p3.doc Clinton described a world of frightening terror scenarios involving nerve gas and germ attacks and computer hacking that, until now, have largely been the province of thriller novels.
Indeed, Clinton developed a personal interest in the possibility of a biological attack after reading a novel by Richard Preston called ``The Cobra Event,'' which deals with such an attack in New York.
....
[Clinton] said the threat was made clear last spring when a satellite malfunctioned, disabling pagers, automatic money machines, credit card systems and television networks around the world.
Clinton's national coordinator for the counter-terrorism effort, Richard Clarke, said there was a threat of ``information warfare'' in which a rogue nation, terrorist group or criminal cartel could perform a ``systematic national intrusion'' into computer systems, with effects comparable to the strategic bombing of infrastructure during the Second World War.
``What we're concerned about is in the future, nations will have that same capability to destroy each other's infrastructure, not by bombs, but by cyber attack,'' Clarke told reporters.