Lately, there has been a lot of scare on the doctors from India being involved in various bomb plots. The attacks seemed to be put together by people harnessing the power of the internet. Yet, it all culminated in the physical execution of the plans. As the world grows more and more interconnected with almost all systems being online, is such a physical action necessary?
The movie Die Hard 4.0, loosely based on an article in Wired Magazine (1) explores this question. Consider this: The world is depending on the power of internet for everything. Be it controlling the railway networks, the communication, financial markets, national power grids and so. What if someone who wanted to control the world mounted a concerted attacks on this national lifeline? What if someone took over the internet and in effect took over the control? There is no physical force being used. Yet, the devastation caused could be chilling.
Consider the scenario played out in the article, the movie and another plot by Tom Clancy in his book Debt of Honour. In each of the place, there is a running plot like where a group with malicious intent takes control of the financial markets. What if the companies which are involved in trading of volumes unimaginable by mere mortals loose control of the gate-keepers of their treasure – the software programs that take the “buy-sell” decisions? What if these software wreak havoc when they fail to understand the markets since it goes against their pre-programmed business rules?
Or consider another scenario: What if the entire nation's traffic network is brought to a stand still? What happens when the metros, tubes, traffic signals – all of which are centralized suddenly have new masters, a group of nerds who have some ulterior motive rather than smooth running of the economy?
Or, what if the utility grids – the power and water supply networks are brought to grinding halt? What happens to life-support systems in hospitals? What happens when the entire country suddenly grows dark? (Although in a country like India, it is not a big worry right now, since this happens often enough!) Yet, in countries where there are sky scrapers, literally mini-cities in a building, such a power outage would mean no clean air, water and transportation. It is a scenario for nightmare.
These are some really worrying questions to answer and looks like not really many people even know where to begin. For a country like India it essentially means that since it is not so well connected, when it is going to start building such systems into place, it should ensure has systems in place to tackle such hindrances. Or else, India will be as vulnerable to these attacks as any other country in the world.
Wired Magazine article - http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.05/netizen.html
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