On 9/5/2002 at 16:01:02 -0400, alex@yuriev.com said:
The thing is, the major cuts are not "attacks;" the backhoe operators aren't gunning for our fiber (no matter how much it seems like they are). If I wanted to disrupt traffic, intentionally and maliciously, I would not derail a train into a fiber path. Doing so would be very difficult, and the legal ramifications (murder, destruction of property, etc, etc) are quite clear and severe. However, if I ping-bomb you from a thousand "0wn3d" PCs on cable modems, I never had to leave my parents' basement, I'm harder to trace by normal police methods, and the question of which laws that can be applied to me is less clear.
This fails to address how this affects someone who has no problem with legal ramfications - i.e. a terrorist.
Even a terrorist will tend towards things that allow him to continue to be a terrorist. If I can do X amount of damage, and get caught, or do X amount of damage, and not get caught, then he'll do the second. Even a terrorist that will die to kill will probably not die to inconvenience.