One of the greatest threats to society today comes not from overseas terrorist groups, who coincidentally have not pulled off a major attack on U.S. soil since 911, but from a much more inconspicuous threat: the computer hacker. Unlike traditional terrorist groups, which require years of planning and access to specific materials to create their bombs, anyone with a computer, the proper knowledge, and a little time can create a formidable virus, worm, or other malicious program, and release it onto the internet.
With such a large threat, it would make sense for the knowledge on how to create these programs to be hard to come by. Quite the contrary, every university and most colleges in America offer more than enough training to be able to create these programs. Anyone who has taken a few computer science classes is capable of being a hacker. And most people who who have hacked don’t have more than a working knowledge of how to use a computer, with little to no coding knowledge. For most hacking, it’s as simple as, hey Steve left his Facebook up, let’s update his status that he’s gay and hates black people. So why when there are so many opportunities for so many people with the required skills are there so few actual internet crashing viruses.
Two reasons. One is the fact that someone has already created a computer virus. And therefore someone else has already created software to stop computer viruses. Second is that most people don’t realize that they are capable of creating malicious software with no more than minimal training in creating programs. And so we are lulled into a false sense of security that hacking is too complicated for normal people to do, and that therefore no one will do it. So when the big hack comes, all we can do is pray that the FBI and the CIA and the other acronyms are ready for it, because most of us aren’t.