[June 16, 2011] The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Tech Talk column Tweet Jun 14, 2011 (The Times Leader - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Humanity has, since the dawn of time, continually has found more creative ways to hurt one another. This is a nearly inevitable side effect of the incessant march of technology. And it has, over the course of time, gotten wider in scope and less personal in nature. With the advent of the Internet, a new front has been opened up. The concept is called cyberwar, and if you listen to some security analysts, it is being waged, likely at this very minute, against us, by China and perhaps Russia, and by us, against those same two powers. And most people are totally unaware of it because it doesn't directly impact us ... yet. Cyberwar, simply put, is attempting to harm an enemy by attacking and either disabling or subverting its networks and information systems. But it could be very harmful in the future. Imagine if a team of foreign hackers sabotaged the American power grid, the Internet or our banking systems. It could happen. Fortunately, many crucial military installations are hardened against such attacks or do not have any direct access to outside networks. But the potential for havoc still exists. And the scary thing -- it doesn't take a wealthy country to do things like this. Even a relatively impoverished power -- North Korea, for example -- could harm the United States in this fashion. Moreover, it doesn't even take a country to do this -- a single person, sufficiently talented, can muster the resources to cause terrible problems. Fortunately for us, it hasn't happened. Right now we've been inconvenienced, in some cases financially harmed, by such attacks -- but they haven't caused any lasting damage. Once again I'll add "yet." So what's the solution? How do we protect ourselves against these things? Well, the Internet is actually pretty resilient to downright failure. Bits and pieces can drop out, but it's basically designed to stitch itself back together if things like that happen. As for things like services -- electricity and the like -- well, that's one good thing about having an "aging infrastructure." Most of our services can operate independently of the Internet -- banking may be one exception to that. Worst case -- be prepared in the same way you would for any natural disaster. Keep a radio around. Buy a generator. Have water on hand. Keep some hard currency around. Better yet, buy some gold or silver. Many of us have come -- very quickly -- to take the Internet for granted. But we got along just fine for thousands of years without it. And it never hurts to have options if it should ever go away. Nick DeLorenzo is director of Interactive and New Media for The Times Leader. Write him at [email protected]. Tweet Follow @TLbreaking To see more of The Times Leader, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesleader.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]