IT and society: IT and national security.

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IT and national security

Two of the problems that organizations face when they computerize are:

• Increased vulnerability to machine breakdown.

• Risk of unauthorized users tampering with their data.

Because, after computerization, all major functions tend to be centred on the computer, the consequences of both can be disastrous. So organizations go to great lengths to guard against these possibilities, with expensive maintenance con­ tracts, back-up procedures, and elaborate password and other security devices. In spite of this, computers still go wrong, hackers are still able to break into systems, and the extent of computer fraud, although unknown, is large. When public administration and national defence operations are computerized, however, the dire consequences of a malfunction or unauthorized access are magnified many times.

As I write this, the United States National Research Council has just published a report on computer security called Computers at Risk (published by the National Acad­emy Press, Washington). It states that the computer 'will replace the bomb as a terror weapon', and that attacks on national and private computers could cost lives, disrupt banking and commerce, and corrupt important national data. It states that with increasing computerization and networking, these risks will increase rapidly.

Apart from these terrorist risks, over-dependence upon electronic systems can be very dangerous in time of war.

For example, a special type of nuclear device, detonated high in the atmosphere, could release a short burst of high­ energy radiation which would knock out all microprocessor­ based systems while not causing any other damage. This would, effectively, neutralize all civil and defence systems. To guard against this kind of enemy action, electronic systems that are crucial to national defence are being provided with radiation protection.

However, the possibility of unauthorized access to national systems such as these, and of tampering with them to make them ineffective, remains. The 'Computers at Risk' report points out that we have been remarkably lucky in avoiding a disaster affecting a critical computer system, but that 'there is reason to believe our luck will soon run out'.

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