Will Next Terror Attack Be Electronic?
C O L O R A D O S P R I N G S, Colo., Sept. 16 -- Intelligence experts worry that the next terrorist strike on the United States will be what they call a "swarming attack" — a bombing or suicide hijacking combined with a hit on computers — that will make it tougher for law enforcement and emergency teams to respond.
To deal with such a threat, the Bush administration is finalizing a strategy to guard against cyberterrorism.
"It's much easier to do than building a weapon of mass destruction," said Richard Clarke, special White House adviser for cyberspace security. "Cyberattacks are a weapon of mass disruption, and they're a lot cheaper and easier."
What kind of damage using the Internet is possible? Clarke and other experts offered examples of what a skilled computer hacker could do, even from a computer on the other side of the world from the target:
Alter the software that controls phone service, shutting down communications for an entire region.
Open or close the switch on an electric power grid or the floodgates of a dam.
Testing the System
To get an idea of what terrorists could do to hamper an emergency response, ABCNEWS asked Innerwall, a Colorado Springs-based computer security consulting firm, to hack into a police department in a different state and see how much disruption it could cause.
Businesses hire Innerwall's computer wizards to find vulnerabilities in their systems — before the real hackers do. Innerwall executive Vince Jordan says terrorists don't need much to do major damage.
"You could have somebody sitting in a cave someplace with a satellite uplink," said Jordan. "You could have somebody sitting in a hotel room with a broadband connection."
Holed up inside a room known as the "attack center," Innerwall's hackers targeted the Huntington Park, Calif., Police Department, located just outside Los Angeles. Police Chief Randy Narramore had installed what he believed was a "pretty high-tech" firewall to protect the department's computer system. He agreed to let Innerwall try to break in.
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