The Success of Terrorism

 

I've been reading a lot lately about cyber-security, its history, and the impact it's had on democracy and policy. One thing is clear. Terrorism in any form, be it IEDs, 9/11s, assassinations, etc., have little to do with gaining military advantage.  They are about creating an environment where people are scared. Getting them to overreact or distrust their government is the goal. The cyberattacks on infrastructure serve a similar purpose. After all, one purpose of government is to protect its citizens.  The occasional cyber hit on, say, the billing department of a pipeline that shuts down gasoline supplies, or messing with the water supply of a Florida city, or shutting off the lights in Ukraine, or manipulating people on social media with disinformation; all these efforts build distrust in the ability of government to protect its citizens.  You can shatter people's support for  government by scaring them, and soon people won't bother to vote, they'll distrust elections, and governments will fall.  

 

The efforts of the Russian GRU and other terrorists have been wildly successful. 9/11 unleashed an enormous overreaction that bogged the U.S. down in multiple wars in the Middle East that have sapped the treasury and military, resulted in spending trillions on theatrical security efforts in airports, and increased surveillance on its citizens, accomplishing nothing except to build distrust of government. Their recent minion in the White House only made things worse by placing his emphasis on personal enrichment rather than defense of the country, downplaying not just cyber threats, but biologic ones as well.

 

None of this is new, but it will take a deft hand at the controls to overcome the mounting distrust in democracy and government.

Suggested Reading:

Anderson, James. "Computer Security Technology Planning Study." UC Davis Computer Security Lab, seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu/projects/history/papers/ande72.pdf.

Corera, Gordon. Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage. Pegasus Books, 2017.

Greenberg, Andy. Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers. Anchor, 2020.

Perlroth, Nicole. This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

"SAGE: Semi-Automatic Ground Environment Air Defense System." MIT Lincoln Laboratory, www.ll.mit.edu/about/history/sage-semi-automatic-ground-environment-air-defense-system.