If they shut down the economy, it can cost lives in the long run, so I have to disagree with you about their official designation there. But still, the implicaions of hijacking the servers of FEMA should make us a little nervous on its own marits.
Bah. The economy functioned just fine before the Internet. Even today with all our electronic transactions, if it all went offline, business would fare just fine on paper for days if not weeks. So I don't buy the claim that it would cost lives in any stretch of time. Again, this crap doesn't evoke a sense of terror; in evokes a sense of annoyance.
But still, the implicaions of hijacking the servers of FEMA should make us a little nervous on its own marits.
Why? Haven't you noticed how the NOAA, NASA, GAO, and a host of other .gov servers have long been the happy haunts of many an anklebiting scriptkiddy? Hell, even the .mil servers which answer to the Department of Defense have more than their fair share of break-ins on a regular basis.
FEMA getting 0wn3d is nothing new. This sort of nonsense has been going on since the 1980s.