NY Times Op-Ed on Cyberwar is Quite Humorous

I got quite a knee-slapper this morning from my Quantum Leap Buzz "data exhaust sniffer" (get your own by clicking here) when I got a message equating cyberwarfare with the nuclear arms race. A New York Times Op-Ed piece (see here) actually suggests the nuclear metaphor. My problem with that logic is that nuclear weapons development (as the Iranians are proving) is no small task. Compare that with cyberwarfare, where a single brilliant individual with a laptop, a power source, and a satellite phone can bring the world to its knees from a cave in some third-world country. The final quote from this contestant in the 2012 Intellectual Special Olympics gave me two laughs for the price of one:

Cyberwarfare is not to be entered into lightly, and governments need to be more open about their capabilities. Disclosure is imperative to prevent attacks that may cost lives and potentially snowball into major global conflicts.

Translated: "My little security firm in Finland is way behind the curve, and I'd sure like someone to tell us where all that cool stuff is coming from and who has a corner on the zero-day exploit market."