CyberWar

The article "Cyber War" by Patricia Smith is about the United States being attacked by Iran on the Internet. In the article it states, "The hackers picked the one day of the year they knew they could inflict the most damage on the world's most valuable company."

The hackers picked a specific day to attack the United States. In the article says, "They knew that last August 15, more than 55,000 Saudi Aramco employees would be at home preparing for a Muslim holiday. So that morning, at 11:08, a computer virus began erasing data on 75 percent of Aramco's corporate PC's-- documents, spreadsheets, email files-- replacing everything with an image of a burning American flag."

Before the virus could be stopped it affected a lot of computers. Some people feel that we could be facing a 'Cyber Pearl Harbor'. In October Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that the United States is facing the possibility of a 'cyber pearl harbor'. In the passage it says, "The U.S. is increasingly vulnerable." Leon Panetta said to foreign hackers who could dismantle the nation's power grid and more.

I feel that this is something that the United States should be worried about. Cyber-attack may not seem that important to people because it's on the internet. But if people are calling it a 'cyber pearl harbor' than it's something to be concerned about. If you have ever heard about Pearl Harbor or seen the movie about it, then you can see why this would be important. Pearl Harbor was an attack on the U.S. by the Japanese, which caused World War II.

What is the reason that these hackers are doing this? Is it something that the U.S. did to them that we don't know about? I can't read people's minds but I’m kind of sure that these people didn't just attack the U.S. for no reason. There is something that happened before they decided to attack us and it would be nice to know what it is. If these people are that powerful that they are erasing important files and e-mails and hacking into banks and things like that then this is something the President, we the people, and the world should be concerned about.