I was all set to write this great piece on Cyberwar and how it’s a bunch of fear-mongering by those who don’t understand it, but Scot Terban beat me to it.  See his thought-provoking piece on InfosecIsland or his blog titled: Dr. Cyberlove… Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love CYBERWAR! (Here’s the link for those who are paranoid: http://krypt3ia.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/dr-cyberlove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-cyberwar/).  It’s a great piece to get you thinking about Cyberwar and if we are indeed in one now. 

According to Sen Joseph Lieberman and Jay Rockefeller, we are on the brink of a cyber disaster.  They equate our cyber situation to 9/11.  Now I’m all for increasing focus on security, but not for the sake of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt). Selling fear never works in the long term.

Cyberwar is a sexy term that’s hotly debated.  Many take one side or the other as to whether or not we are at war over the wires (or wireless).  Can computers kill?  Are we in the land of The Terminator and Tron?  Are we on the brink of Cyber-Armageddon? Can people live without Twitter and Facebook? 

These questions and more will be addressed in the seminar / webinar / debate Dr. Matt Crosston and I are having next Wednesday starting at 1pm. If you live in the Omaha area, you can participate in the debate in person, in the Bellevue University Hitchcock Humanities Center’s Criss Auditorium. Presenters will be me, Ronald Woerner, Assistant Professor and Director of Cybersecurity Studies in the University’s College of Information Technology, and Dr. Matthew D. Crosston, Associate Professor, ISIS Program Director – International Security and Intelligence Studies Chair – Political Science.
Please visit http://www.bellevue.edu/cyberwar/ for more information and to register.

Just call me Dr. Cyberlove…