It was almost 9 p.m. in Tehran as I published this post, and people around the world are still trying to decide what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threatened “punch” against the West is going to be. Some influential Americans appear to think it might come as a cyber attack.
For more information, I direct your attention to an article by Marc Ambinder published yesterday at TheAtlantic.com. It begins this way:
On February 16, at about 10:00 am ET, the U.S. will be hit by a massive, crippling cyber attack from an unknown entity. Key players will convene in the White House situation room and plan the response, from mitigation to (possibly) retaliation. It’ll be live on television — G.N.N.
Ambinder goes on to inform readers of an event — not an attack — that’s been dubbed “Cyber ShockWave” by its creators at the Bipartisan Policy Center and will take place Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. Eastern.
If this event’s list of participants — which, among others, includes former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — is any indication of its newsworthiness, then I’d have to conclude this is a must-follow event. Unfortunately, however, the exercise’s credibility is tarnished by the inclusion of at least two individuals — Jamie Gorelick, former Deputy Attorney General, and Joe Lockhart, former White House Press Secretary — who’s political “baggage” tends to sully the supposed bipartisan nature of the exercise.





