First, a bit of history: On November 2, 1988, 6 days before the presidential elections, Robert T. Morris, Jr. (RTM II)released a worm that brought down the internet.
At the time, there were stories traveling around the net regarding the 1980 "October Surprise", which suggested that members of the Reagan campaign team, and George HW Bush in particular, had negotiated with the Iranians to prevent the release of the hostages before the election.
First, a bit of history: On November 2, 1988, 6 days before the presidential elections, Robert T. Morris, Jr. (RTM II)released a worm that brought down the internet.
At the time, there were stories traveling around the net regarding the 1980 "October Surprise", which suggested that members of the Reagan campaign team, and George HW Bush in particular, had negotiated with the Iranians to prevent the release of the hostages before the election.
I have on a few occasions talked with people who have maintained that this was not simply an obscure coding error that forced a malicious program to overload the bulk of the machines on the net, but rather the deliberate exploitation of a security hole deliberately left in Sendmail for just this purpose.
While I do not think this is likely, the convergence of the following facts make it rather more likely:
- RTM II's father, RTM I was the almost legendary chief computer security scientist at the NSA.
- The remarkably convenient timing of all this.
- George HW Bush's close ties to all levels of the US intelligence apparatus.
- The pitifully weak sentence meted out on RTM II.
At the time, the internet was fairly obscure outside of academic circles, but there was a distinct possibility that "October Surprise" could have made it over the wall to more conventional media.
With this as a background, is a scenario where current or predicted "cyber terrorism" might be used as a way to significantly restrict or shut down the internet in the weeks preceding the election?
When one looks at democratic and anti-Bush organizations, they appear to be far more dependent on the internet than their right wing counterparts.
Additionally, if those right wing organizations get even a day's notice of the impending shut down, they will be in a much better position to mobilize in spite of it.
Is this just "The Lone Gunman" conspiracy theory?
One should note that "The Lone Gunman" predicted planes hitting the World Trade Center 4 months before 911.