One step closer to Skynet.   Is it hot in here or just Summer?   

2.3 million? That's pocket change. I still shake my head at what ordinary people consider "money" to be when it comes to cybersecurity. Call me about Skynet when it's 2.3 billion.

Realistically, 2.3 million usd will employ a small team for about a year. The rest will be overhead and other costs and of course let's not forget about profit. The only reason this is "news" is because it's worded in a futuristic way.

Tomorrow's headline: Russia pays 230.000 usd ANNUALLY to maintain the spacetime continuum. What they actually do: pay maintenance on Chernobyl.

Hightech countries gotta be able to compete in the cyberwar.

Good info. 

one step closer to skynet ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aerospace_Defense_Command 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellite) just not as we know it from the Terminator series

Regarding your comments Doc--it is computing power and technology that are rushing towards the very examples you gave. 

We are currently on the edge of a threshold of computational power that will make change happen so fast its debatable if nations and societies will be able to cope. The risk this brings is it lowers the bar for individuals getting the means to acquire some really destructive capabilities and then having the potential to be able to create seriously destabilizing events.

Genetic engineering is entirely computer driven and as more powerful and less expensive machines to do the number crunching for research trickle down from governmental to business and then to the individual, the potential for someone to engineer a lethal plague  becomes even greater.

Individual freedoms are jeopardized as governments, businesses and individuals gain more and more ability to track and predict personal patterns of behavior and action.

National security is at risk as smaller and less stable nations gain the information through more advanced computing to build nuclear bombs, engineer biological agents and conduct electronic espionage and to disrupt national and military infrastructures.

In short small countries and even a single person can create catastrophic events that destabilize the world.

A small group of religious fanatics flew a handful of planes into buildings and the result was trillions of dollars taken out of a national economy, the invasion of two countries and a weakening of personal privacy and right to due process.

Imagine if an Iranian suicide bomber were to detonate a nuclear weapon in Tel Aviv or if a disease outbreak in the United States was determined to have been engineered in a Chinese lab.

We are gaining information so rapidly, we are losing the ability to predict or understand where it's taking us.

As it stands today, hostile nations can walk about the cybersscape of their enemy's with relative impunity and monitor and observe it's businesses, citizens and government.

We are indeed living in interesting times.  Like the prophet Daniel said, "Knowledge and travel will increase."  It does give one pause.

Complacency, lack of trust, apathy and mans inability to foresee all possibilities. Man has always enjoyed being able to destroy with the bravery of being out of range. That's for starters.

It's not in our nature enough. Or rather, there are too many parts of our nature that are needless remnants from millennia past.

I used to go fishing decades ago. It nearly drove me insane. There's little worse than being outsmarted by fish.

Hehe...I just switch to "autistic mode" and then don't have to worry about being compromised.

I'd consider letting Summer terminate me.

Consider it? Is it not a forgone conclusion already good sir!!
LOL

Long story short ... if its out there it will be used by one or another person for personal gain, satisfying a lust for power and the need to control his/her surroundings. Too bad its the government and not Joe Shmoe who has it because if Joe Shmoe developed it the PTB's would want it, perhaps kill Joe Shmoe to get it, and ask ... Can it be used as a weapon? (Uncle Sam would) Once done another Joe Shmoe comes along and with some buddies, steals it, corrupts it then uses it and what's left?

Not a damn thing!

That is the problem Uvah (what you said).  All it takes is one person to "destroy the village".

In old days, a malcontent could cause mayhem with fire or a sword but an angry mob of dozens of people also having fire and swords  would be after them--and all their relatives too.

Now we can anonymously "drive-by" and hit people with bio-engineered plagues, dirty bombs, cyber-economic attacks and even nuclear weapons.  Imagine if Al Qaeda had possessed three nuclear weapons on 9-11.  A small group of less than 2000 people could have brought the entire world to the brink of chaos--even though billions of people would have opposed their actions.

A well coordinated cyber attack could actually destabilize national and even global economies--particularly if they are already weakened as is the current case.

Like....where were you during the Cold War?

Been there - done that.

As I said, man has always enjoyed being able to destroy with the bravery of being out of range. Whether it's a well thrown stone or a missile that can wipe out millions, it boils down to the same thing; not wanting to see the lights permanently go out in your enemy's eyes.

No such thing as being "out of range" anymore.

Long past time for the species to "grow up".