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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 11/03
Cyber Attacks: Missing in Action
James A. Lewis
April 2003
Abstract
The first warnings of an "electronic Pearl Harbor" appeared in 1995. They have appeared regularly since then. Before the conflict with Iraq that began in March 2003, there was speculation that the U.S. would experience cyber attacks in retaliation. Since the onset of the war, however, there have been no reported attacks that damaged U.S. infrastructure or affected U.S. military operations in Iraq. Nor have there been any reports of cyber attacks that damaged U.S. infrastructure or affected U.S. military operations since 1996.
This is not the result of inactivity by terrorist groups. The State Department reports there were 1,813 international terrorists attack between the start of 1996 and end of 2001. While many of these attacks did not involve U.S. citizens or targets, some of the most damaging terrorist attacks against the United States took place in this period. They include the Khobar Tower bombings (June 1996), the U.S. Embassy Bombings in East Africa (August 1998), the attack on U.S.S. Cole, (October 2000). Three hundred and twenty seven people died in these attacks, which were followed by the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, which cost more than three thousand lives and caused billions of dollars in damage.
