HOW HE SEES IT War on terrorism moves to cyberspace

The next great battle field in the war on terrorism may be in cyberspace. The White House National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace suggests that cyberspace is America's infrastructure nervous system. The healthy functioning of cyberspace is essential to America's economy and security and the continued efficient delivery of critical services.
Thomas L. Friedman author of "The World is Flat" writes in detail about the shrinking or flattening of the world, through access to real time information and communication. That flattening is occurring in cyberspace. Businesses large and small can talk to each other and exchange expertise as never before. The playing field, and unfortunately the battlefield, has been leveled.
Cyberspace connects millions of computers, laptops, cell phones and blackberry's through an intricate series of servers, routers and switches running through cables, fiber-optics and wireless towers.
Critical services have become entirely dependent on cyberspace. Who would be affected by an attack in cyberspace? A cyber attack could affect government, military and law enforcement. The results are obvious, services would cease, the ability to process arrests, or schedule and conduct court proceedings would be curtailed. Military units would be lost on the battlefield. While serious, the average American may see the impact as limited in scope.
However, an attack may also affect telecommunications, transportation and postal services. The screw begins to tighten. The ability to communicate, get to work, to receive deliveries or mail would be impacted.
The attack may extend to banking and financial markets. Economic stability would be at risk. Food, water and public health may be affected. Power grids may go down. America would literally be in the dark.
No amount of explosives could wreak the kind of havoc that would result form a successful large scale cyberspace attack.
With America's obsession with the manner of prior terrorist attacks, like the truck bomb in Oklahoma City, the first bombing of the World Trade Center and of course 9/11, today, it may be easier and more effective to attack a computer system, as opposed to exploding a bomb. For instance, a terrorist attack on the computer network operating an air traffic control center could modify flight paths with catastrophic results. Hacking into a computer network is more efficient and is certainly less detectable than a suitcase full of explosives.
Techno terrorist
While government officials rush to secure the boarders and invest enormous sums of money into things like biometrics to make it easier to identify bad guys and add layer upon layer to transportation security, a terrorists sitting in his apartment in Budapest with commercially available technology, is capable of perpetrating acts which could bring about economic and social chaos.
Why are counterterrorism experts so concerned about threats to cyberspace? According to the State of New York there are several reasons. Cyberspace has millions of new points of entry every year, technology is inexpensive and readily available and there is a shortage of trained personnel to deal with an attack.
The good news is the government is not ignoring this issue. However, the government has sent a clear signal that the private sector -- business and consumers -- are best equipped to deal with evolving cyber threats.
The White House's Cyberspace Strategy issued in 2003 is a blueprint for protecting critical cyber infrastructure. The strategy cites rapid identification and information sharing as key components to dealing with malicious or terrorism inspired activity. The government also needs to be cognizant of personal privacy and civil liberties.
The Department of Homeland Security responded by creating the National Cyber Security Division as a conduit for federal information sharing with state and local law enforcement and the business community. In addition, according to The Year in Homeland Security, the US-CERT team was created to respond to threats and incidents of cyber terrorism.
Unfortunately, 100 percent security does not exist. The question is not if, but when terrorists strike in cyberspace. Therefore, just as important is the ability to operate under attack and the resilience to quickly restore full operations.
The last attack on American soil saw buildings collapse in the heart of America's financial district. The next attack may inevitably see the financial markets collapse without so much as a broken window on Wall Street.
X Matthew T. Mangino is the former district attorney of Lawrence County and featured columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. He can be reached at matthewmangino@aol.com.