Stop A Cyber 9/11

At a Department of Homeland Security conference in Washington, DC I attended at the beginning of this month, this question was poised “Will it take a Cyber 9/11 to get people serious about IT Security?” This answer obviously is, “Yes.”

Just look at the post I referenced yesterday from Peter Nesbet with respect to VoIP Security. It reflects an attitude that nothing is different, nothing bad can happened. I believe that VoIP could likely be the means attackers use to reach succeed in a cyber 9/11 attack. Because people trust voice, because they believe the usual defenses will keep them safe, and because they never considered VoIP as a weapon, it could a likely cause of a significant cyber security event. 9/11 was about terrorists using commercial airplanes as a weapon and no one (except the terrorists) had considered commercial airplanes that way. As a result, the attack produced the results the terrorists wished to achieve. Not thinking about VoIP as a potential weapon will lead us closer to the day of a successful large-scale cyber attack.