 COLUMN
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Security Adviser
P.J. Connolly
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EMP makes you crazy
WITH APOLOGIES to Art Linkletter, readers say the darndest things. One managed to scare the heck out of me last month but, fortunately, I got over it quickly. What did he do that was so terrifying? He just brought up a couple of basic facts that anyone who took a high school physics class would know.
There's a bigger problem than hijacked airliners or anthrax spores, and there's no cure for it. Prevention is pretty difficult, and certainly expensive. I'm talking about the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) effect, which is something I haven't been seriously worried about since the Cold War ended. The threat back then was that as the first phase of a first strike, a few geographically dispersed nuclear weapons would be detonated in the ionosphere, disrupting communications and frying every consumer-grade integrated circuit on a continent.
For the most part, the only people who've taken EMP seriously are science fiction and thriller writers -- my favorite treatment is by Neal Stephenson in Cryptonomicon, a must-read of mine from a couple of years ago. The thought of discharging a high-energy radio-frequency weapon in downtown Los Altos, Calif. -- as happened in the book -- tickles the juvenile delinquent inside of me, but that's because PC vendors need every break they can get.
Seriously, though, and this is the point my reader conveyed: If you think we're vulnerable to anthrax, just consider for a second how undefended we are against EMP. Granted, I don't expect Osama bin Ladin and his al-Qaida buddies to get their hands on ICBMs anytime soon, but they certainly have a flair for the dramatic. An orchestrated widespread EMP attack could easily wreak havoc. Think about all the electronic transactions that take place without benefit of paper backup. Think about the investment in hardware that would have to be replaced. I'm not just talking about computers here, but electronic equipment of all types, including your car's ignition. If you think you've seen gridlock, just wait until you've seen every car on a freeway stop dead -- for good.
But there's one small problem. As far as I can see, it is a very unlikely scenario. I don't stand closer than a meter to a running microwave oven. And I certainly wouldn't want to be anywhere near a handheld device with the equivalent power output of a 1.5-megaton A-bomb. We've seen that a number of terrorists are willing to sacrifice themselves and innocents to carry out an attack, but if they have nukes, EMP is the least of my worries.
So although EMP is a threat, it's not a very credible one. This is good news all around, because IT managers have enough to worry about without explaining to the board of directors why the server room and wiring closets have to be sheathed in copper. Granted, some of you may be able to justify a barnacle-proof environment, but you probably have armed guards and barbed wire too.
P.J. Connolly (pj_connolly@infoworld.com) covers groupware, messaging, networking, and security for the Test Center. Get this column free via e-mail each week. Sign up at www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters .
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