Richard Clarke on Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack
“My greatest fear,” Clarke says, “is that, rather than having a cyber-Pearl Harbor event, we will instead have this death of a thousand cuts. Where we lose our competitiveness by having all of our research and development stolen by the Chinese. And we never really see the single event that makes us do something about it. That it’s always just below our pain threshold. That company after company in the United States spends millions, hundreds of millions, in some cases billions of dollars on R&D and that information goes free to China….After a while you can’t compete.”
Glad to see Mr. Clarke give up the idea that a cyberattack could cause a day of electronic armageddon, but I think now he’s moved the goal posts a wee bit too far. He’s now in Amit Yoran “Cyber 9-11 has happened over the last 10 years, but it’s happened slowly so we don’t see it” territory. There’s no way to measure or see the holocaust that’s happening, so we just need to trust the experts. And whose pain threshold is he referring to exactly? I’m fairly certain the companies who are losing billions to espionage are acutely aware of the problem and addressing it. I’d love to see evidence to the contrary.
