[The Great RJ]

The threat of cyber-terrorism is real. If teenage kids can build Internet worms and viruses that can corrupt thousands of servers a dedicated assault could cripple US businesses. The Islamo-nazis would be all too happy to cripple the "Great Satan" by disrupting US businesses.

[NJ_gent]

"The threat of cyber-terrorism is real. If teenage kids can build Internet worms and viruses that can corrupt thousands of servers a dedicated assault could cripple US businesses."

A few exclusively online businesses (Amazon) could be crippled for a few hours or days by a well-planned coordinated attack. Any business with good planning on their tech end will be back up and accessible within hours. Businesses run on-the-cheap which exist exclusively online would likely face more serious consequences. The "threat" of "cyber-terrorism" is ridiculously overstated.

While those who disrupt business and personal computers with viruses/worms/other attacks should be stopped and prosecuted, they're not threatening the life of anyone. You can't bring down anything over the internet that isn't attached to the internet. Thus, until some idiot is stupid enough to connect a hospital's life-saving machines to the internet, there's nothing any hacker in the world can do to that hospital's equipment, no matter how good they may be. If it does so happen that someone connects a hospital's life-saving machines to the internet, that person is likely in violation of numerous US laws, and should be fired, prosecuted, and otherwise punished by whatever laws or means are legally available. We're not going to see nuclear plants exploding or respiratory machines shutting down because of kids making viruses, regardless of what Hollywood and techno-doomsday fans would like you to believe.

[Prime Choice]

The threat of cyber-terrorism is real.

Cyber-terrorism is a myth. Network outages evoke annoyance, not terror. Even in the worst-claimed cyber attacks in which businesses claimed BILLIONS of dollars in losses (such as they claimed in the wake of the MELISSA and ILOVEYOU worms), no businesses collapsed, nobody died, and the economy was not harmed in the least.

In fact, NONE of the businesses that claimed billions in losses claimed those "losses" to their stockholders or the SEC. Hmmmmmm! Interesting thing, that.

This idiosyncratic hype about "cyber-terrorism" isn't helping, people. It's only engendering a sense of helplessness when it's incredibly simple to defend against the vast majority of attacks.

But hey...if you folks wanna play Chicken Little, be my guest.