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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Superpower status risks cyberattack
From:       InfoSec News <isn () C4I ! ORG>
Date:       2000-08-25 2:22:03
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http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0821/web-cohen-08-24-00.asp

BY Dan Verton
08/24/2000

Cyberwarfare and other security threats simply come with the territory
when your country is the worlds only remaining "superpower," Defense
Secretary William Cohen told a group of veterans this week.

"Were looking at what I call a "superpower paradox," Cohen said during
a speech Monday to the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars and The Ladies Auxiliary. "There is no other country that can
challenge us directly. So they look for indirect ways to challenge
us.... That can come in the form of chemical or biological or even
cyber [warfare]."

Cohen said it is imperative for the United States to study what it
means to be a superpower in the Information Age.

In addition to the two dozen countries known to be pursuing
technologies that would enable them to produce weapons of mass
destruction, threats to the nations critical infrastructure from
cyberattacks are also high on the administrations list of things to
prepare for, Cohen said.

"We know that other countries are forming cells of professionals
dedicated to finding ways to interrupt our [information]
infrastructure," Cohen said.

"If you can shut down our financial system, if you could shut down our
transportation system, if you could cause the collapse of our energy
production and distribution system just by typing on a computer and
causing those links to this globalization to break down, then youre
able to wage successful warfare, and we have to be able to defend
against that," he said. "Were taking these measures."

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