Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

This started as a parenthetical aside in a followup to a comment that jarodrussell left to an entry in theferrett's journal, but then I remembered that it was something I'd been planning to babble about here eventually anyhow, so...

I get tired of hearing the word "cyberterrorism" thrown about casually.

I think that most -- maybe, probably all -- of the cyberattacks we've ever seen are more "cybervandalism" than "cyberterrorism". Not that vandalism isn't a Bad Thing, just that the word "cyberterrorism" seems designed to either spread FUD or to inflate the significance of events to justify disproportionate reactions to them. The potential for real cyber-terrorism exists (though it'd be harder to pull off than a lot of people think), and ifwhen it happens, it's going to make everything else we've called cyberterrorism look silly. We shouldn't need to invoke the "terrorist" meme to make our points. In meatspace vandalism, armed robbery, breaking and entering, and reckless driving all matter without having to be compared to terrorism to make preventing/punishing them seem valid; nor should we have to call vandalism terrorism in cyberspace.