If you think about it, so much of our everyday life is wired into some kind of network – street lights, phones, credit card authorization, ATMs, electricity, our military defenses.  What DON’T we use on a daily basis that doesn’t involve a network or the internet?  Hmm… I can’t think of a single thing.  Even the water I use to is electronically controlled via a network somewhere down the line.  I can’t even take a dump without computers!

I’ve been hearing a lot about cyber warfare in the news as of late.  That is really scary when you think about all the things that can affect us if somebody launched an attack on our networks.  What makes it scarier is that hackers can do their job and get out without their location being accurately traced.  A group of nerds hanging out in their bedrooms can send the USA back to the stone ages with a few keyboard strokes!  And we won’t even know who did it.

Maybe I should write a script for one of those end of the world movies except use cyber warfare as the culprit instead of nuclear warfare.  Then I can sell it and take all the money and just move to Hawaii.  I’ll live off of coconuts and pineapples!

If you want to read more, there’s a lot of articles recently on this topic at NPR’s website.