Security and Beer Roundtable

[RoyGBiv]

I started to post this in the Computer forum but decided to place it here instead, hoping not just techies would find it of interest.

http://www.watchguard.com/RSS/showarticle.aspx?pack=RSS.RTcyberterr

The link is to a portion of a transcript of a roundtable discussion of the potential threat posed by so-called cyberterrorists. It is quite interesting for reasons that should be clear, so I'll just post the introduction that provides the context and let you decide for youselves what you think.

Roundtable: Is the Cyberterror Threat Credible?

From a session hosted by WatchGuard's LiveSecurity writers

Normally, we keep all WatchGuard Wire articles short. This article is different. It proved so popular with LiveSecurity Service subscribers last month, we decided to share it with Wire readers, too.

Over our years in security, we've noticed that the top security thinkers treat security not as their job, but as their lifestyle. The best researchers seem to think about IT security constantly. We've also noticed that they express their most provocative opinions and intriguing insights not when pitching a product by day, but when swapping stories over a beer at night.

We wanted to see what would happen if we tried to capture those "stories over beer" insights for our readers. At Black Hat 2005 in Las Vegas last July, we invited some of the speakers we respect most to share a few drinks and swap opinions in a room at Caesar's Palace. We recorded the session (which was rambling, raucous, and sometimes hilarious), then transcribed it. If you've ever wished you could listen like a fly on the wall to leading security researchers in their less guarded moments, we present to you this excerpt from our Security and Beer Roundtable. The topic: Is there a credible threat to national infrastructure from cyberterrorists? We join the discussion, already in progress.

There's a reference to Blaster in the discussion, so I thought I'd provide a bit of mainstream context for those unaware.