Oct 05/10 - Pt 2: Cyberwar

PART TWO

Cyberwar - Rodney Joffe

We started this segment with a clip from Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews speaking on Sunday. And really, a new national cyber-security strategy couldn't come at a better time.

Over the last two weeks, we've been learning about a new computer virus known as Stuxnet ... a virus some analysts are calling the "malware (malicious software) of the century." The big difference between the Stuxnet virus and everything that has come before is that it seems to target industrial control systems such as the ones t you'd find in water sanitation plants, oil pipelines and nuclear plants ... the kinds of systems that control real-life moving parts with very real-life consequences. Some analysts believe it might have been created to attack Iran's nuclear program.

And it has a lot of people, including Rodney Joffe, very worried. He's a cyber-security expert with Neustar - a Global technology and communications company. He was in Washington.

Articles: Stuxnet malware is blueprint for computer attacks on U.S. / A Code for Chaos / Clues emerge about genesis of Stuxnet worm

Cyberwar - Ron Deibert

We had another clip from Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. On Sunday, he announced a new, national cyber-security strategy. Ron Deibert has been asking the federal government to develop a cyber-security strategy for years now. He runs the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. And he was in Toronto.

The Current did put in a request to speak with Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. And that request went unanswered.

Articles: Feds detail cyber security strategy / 'No guarantees' government's cyber-security plan will work / Canada's Cyber Security Strategy