Earlier today, I wrote a blog post cautioning against the rising hysteria over the current DDoS attacks.
Now, in direction contradiction to the opinion of security experts, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) says the US should conduct a “show of force or strength” against North Korea.
This enterprising fellow is pushing for the United States and United Nations to action based on… nothing. We have not heard or seen a credible shred of evidence that North Korea is behind these attacks.
Compounding the bizarre state of affairs, a ABC News commentator Mike Malone beats the drum for cyberfear, linking dying children, his dislike of “hackers”, and sort of blames South Korea but then has this oddball statement:
Yeah, right. As if all of those millions of middle-class teenaged private owners of broadband connected laptops all over that electricity black hole called the People’s Republic of North Korea spontaneously decided to hack the Web sites of another country’s government and largest corporations.
Which is mystifying, because that’s not how this botnet (or pretty much any other one) works — these machines are not in North Korea, they’re all over the place.
We learned a harsh lesson not so long ago on military action based on flawed intelligence and hysteria. Let’s not repeat the same thing again.
Alex Eckelberry