As you all may know, there is a great mystery about the Stuxnet virus as it relates to the Gavin Hesterdale Journal. Additionally, cyber-attacks are one of two elements that are laying the groundwork for the Internet Kill Bill–a piece of legislation that has been in the World of Depleted mythology since we started crafting it over a year and a half ago. (It wasn’t called the Internet Kill Bill, but the effect of the U.S. President being able to shut down the internet in a time of terrorist attack was definitely part of the story arch.) Well, now Depleted: Day 419’s star, Kat Carney, has been doing some Jenna Whitmore-style sleuthing to find out more about how cyber-attack is laying the groundwork for the Depleted future.
In a recent article from CNNTech, the Black Hat Hacker conference was covered, which was led by Cofer Black, an EX-CIA analyst who had predicted the 9/11 bombings and other dangerous events that came true. While occasionally Black Hat Hackers are benevolent (as seen in the case of Egypt, where they were giving ‘Net access back to those who had had it removed), most Black Hat Hackers cause mayhem as a way to bring down the establishment. (While their methodology is different, they subscribe to similar beliefs to the Knights of Xeno, exchanging KoX hatred of tech for hatred of secrecy.)
In the article, Black went on to say about Stuxnet (and the potential it could open up):
“I’m here to tell ya … the Stuxnet attack is the Rubicon of our future,” he said. “I don’t necessarily understand how this was executed, but the important points are (that) it was really expensive, so a nation-state had to be involved.”
When nation states are involved in cyber hacking, they’re hiring a huge number of “cowboys” (or, as those of you familiar with hacker slang, “samurai”). Normally, these are hackers that consider themselves “neutral” (or, occasionally, “gray hat”), which actually makes them mercenaries. Digital guns for hire, they are usually hated by both black and white hat hackers. Normally they’re employed by corporations, because their skills and lack of scruples are best utilized on a more controllable scale. If nation states are resorting to using them more, then you can expect to see even more strong retaliation from countries for whom they are used against. Which of course, brings us back to the Internet Kill Bill once more!
To read more about the Black Hat Hacker Conference in Vegas and Black’s further comments, click here to go to CNNTech’s News.