North American Network Operators Group

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RE: Vulnerbilities of Interconnection

  • From: Dave Israel
  • Date: Thu Sep 05 18:55:05 2002

My explanation accounts for suicide bombers in the statement: "Even
terrorist that will die to kill will probably not die to
inconvenience."  This does not presume a western value system, either,
as somebody suggested.  Many a terrorist will gladly give their lives
to destroy a hated enemy, or to terrify them, or to change their way
of life.  I cannot believe, however, that there are people who will
give their lives to increase the download times for porn for a few
days.

-Dave

On 9/5/2002 at 13:49:29 -0700, Al Rowland said:
> To reinforce a dissenting opinion, And your explanation accounts for
> suicide bombers how? I would think a smoking hole in the ground
> containing a train or whatever, particularly if lose of life is
> involved, would be much more appealing to the motivations of most
> terrorists than a couple of computers with blue screens of death. I
> would think 9-11 would provide a compelling example of current terrorist
> practice.
> 
> Just my 2�
> 
> Best regards,
> _________________________
> Alan Rowland
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
> Dave Israel
> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 1:29 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Cc: Dave Israel; [email protected]; [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Vulnerbilities of Interconnection
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/5/2002 at 16:01:02 -0400, [email protected] said:
> > > 
> > > The thing is, the major cuts are not "attacks;" the backhoe 
> > > operators aren't gunning for our fiber (no matter how much it seems 
> > > like they are).  If I wanted to disrupt traffic, intentionally and 
> > > maliciously, I would not derail a train into a fiber path.  Doing so
> 
> > > would be very difficult, and the legal ramifications (murder, 
> > > destruction of property, etc, etc) are quite clear and severe.  
> > > However, if I ping-bomb you from a thousand "0wn3d" PCs on cable 
> > > modems, I never had to leave my parents' basement, I'm harder to 
> > > trace by normal police methods, and the question of which laws that 
> > > can be applied to me is less clear.
> > 
> > This fails to address how this affects someone who has no problem with
> 
> > legal ramfications - i.e. a terrorist.
> 
> Even a terrorist will tend towards things that allow him to continue to
> be a terrorist.  If I can do X amount of damage, and get caught, or do X
> amount of damage, and not get caught, then he'll do the second. Even a
> terrorist that will die to kill will probably not die to inconvenience.
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Dave Israel
Senior Manager, DNE SE