CyberWar CyberTerror CyberCrime - (CHAPTER 1 WHAT TECHNOLOGY GIVETH IT TAKETH AWAY)

CHAPTER 1: WHAT TECHNOLOGY GIVETH IT
TAKETH AWAY
‘Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in

equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it
destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is
never one-sided.’
Postman (1990)
Despite Postman’s dire prediction, society has profited

immensely from the development, implementation, and
operation of new information technologies. Our lives have
been enriched by the increased prosperity, expanded
opportunity, and greater variety that advances in information
technology provide.
From the printing press to the information age

The information age is a product of information technology.
This is not, however, its distinguishing feature. Despite what
many may believe, technology in some form has always
been a part of humanity, even in the most primitive of
Copyright © 2008. IT Governance Publishing. All rights reserved.
societies. The factor that distinguishes the period of

information revolution following the invention of the
printing press, and the same factor that distinguishes our
technological world today, is that the entire human condition
has experienced radical change and has entered into a period
of recognizable growth dynamics based on information
expansion associated with technological innovations.
As with the printing press, the introduction of the new
Internet-based information technology is much more than
Mehan, Julie E.. CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime, IT Governance Publishing, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kcau-ebooks/detail.action?docID=480406.
Created from kcau-ebooks on 2022-03-12 12:25:50.
1: What Technology Giveth It Taketh Away
just a technological discovery to which society must adjust.

The explosive growth of the Internet – a worldwide
telecommunications network – and a global information
society have brought about a transformation of our social
systems. As a result, not only the information technology,
but also human beings, social relationships, economic
standards, norms, and ethical values have evolved.
There are visible parallels between events surrounding the
invention and proliferation of the printing press and the
societal changes that are appearing as a consequence of new
information technology. These are so compelling that one
might contend that these will be as dramatic as the events of
the scientific revolution, the spread of knowledge, and the
Reformation, which all had their roots in the propagation of
information as a result of the creation of the printing press.
Unintended consequences will certainly impact the future of
society as a result of the new information technology. The
cataclysmic societal and cultural changes that occurred
subsequent to the invention of the printing press were
completely unpredictable. In fact, it took more than a century
for these to be recognized.
The printing press

The invention of the printing press totally transformed the
way in which information was created, reproduced, sold, and
consumed. It brought into being new economic institutions
and relationships and altered old ones beyond recognition.
As a result, the printing press represents the only comparable
event in the history of communications to the recent
information technology revolution.
Gutenberg’s first printing press was invented by converting

an old wine press into a printing machine. His first prints
were made in the German city of Mainz in 1450, and by
1490 the printing press had permeated 110 cities in six
different countries and more than eight million books had
been printed; each providing access to information that had
never before been available to the average citizen. By the
end of the century the technology had spread throughout
Europe, setting in motion the first information explosion – a
precursor to today’s information revolution.
It is clear that the printing press radically altered the manner
in which information was collected, stored, retrieved,
criticized, discovered, and promoted – leading eventually
and inevitably to the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the
scientific revolution.
The printed works enabled by the printing press forced the
Reformation, for without crucial access to the printed
editions of religious texts and the emerging variations on the
relevant dogma issues, Martin Luther may not have had
sufficient incentive to develop his revolutionary new
theological concepts. Also, without enhanced access to the
creation of printed texts, Luther would not have been able to
spread his new ideas beyond a few elite.
The Renaissance also owes its spread across Europe to the

printing press. While there had been preceding efforts to
evolve humanistic concepts prior to the so-called ‘Italian
Renaissance’, it was not until the printing press and the
subsequent ability to put those ideas into the hands of the
average citizen that they were able to proliferate and thrive.
Nowhere was the effect of the printing press as evident as in
the scientific revolution. Science relies on the concept of the
accumulation of knowledge. The collection and universal
availability of scientific data relied on the printing press,

whereupon new contributions of knowledge could become
part of a permanent accumulation.
It must be noted that the printing press did not invent the
book; rather, it changed how books contributed to the
preservation and distribution of knowledge. Until the
printing press, books were meticulously hand-copied and,
consequently, distribution was limited to an extremely small
number of the learned and clerics. The printing press allowed
the production of thousands of copies of a single manuscript.
In essence, books were brought from the libraries of the elite
to the homes of the populace.
The printing press also changed how information could be
retrieved. Prior to the printing press, the ability to retrieve
information was largely dependent on the capability of an
individual to recall the location of the information. Indexed
books were essentially unknown. After the printing press,
however, indexing became part of a more orderly, systematic
approach to printed text.
One of the greatest, most immediate and most identifiable
consequences of the invention of the printing press was the
revolution in education and learning. Previously limited to
scholars and clerics, learning through books gradually

expanded to become part of the daily life of children and
adolescents; thus exposing young citizens to a very different
developmental process than that experienced by the youth of
medieval society.
If the printing press first fostered the positive concepts of
modern individuality, it was also a major factor in the
destruction of the medieval constructs of society and
community. The printing press represented an example of
technology that fostered change, creating both good and bad.
The path taken by society after the printing press has led
unalterably to what many term a revolution resulting in the
advent of the ‘new information technology’.
Further Reading:
Dewar, J. A. (2000) The information age and the printing press:

Looking backward to see ahead (P 8014) [Electronic version].
Retrieved June 20, 2002 from www.rand.org/publications/P/P8014.
Eisenstein, E. (1979) The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
The new information age5

As emerging information technologies become increasingly
prevalent, it also becomes clear that society as a whole finds
itself in the midst of an information revolution equally as
profound and certainly as far-reaching as the one initiated by
Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. As then, it
is not the technology itself that defines this information
revolution, but rather the unprecedented capability to enable
a degree of one-to-many and many-to-many communication
never before seen.
5
The futurist Alvin Toffler in his book, The Third Wave, described
technology in terms of three ‘waves’. The first wave was the Agricultural
Revolution, the second wave the Industrial Revolution, and the third
wave is the Information Revolution. He argued that the means by which
countries amass wealth is reflected in the way in which they wage war.
Thus, war in the information age would likely depend largely upon the
use of information technology.
Over 100 years ago, the emergence of the telegraph

presented an evolution in mass communication and
information sharing begun by Gutenberg and his printing
press. While it provided a new means of communication and
caused noticeable changes in the speed of communication, it
nonetheless remained limited by regulation and
technological capability; thus ensuring that it did not expand
beyond a select group of users. Consequently, its effects
were limited. Short generations later, the telephone appeared,
also altering the course of communication. But, like the
telegraph, the telephone also was limited in its expansion
capability and, consequently, its effects were also restricted.
Neither change in communications represented a revolution
in the society in which they were introduced.
From the beginning of records and through the industrial
age, land, human labour, and physical possessions were the
key ingredients of wealth. In this traditional paradigm, the
creation of wealth required the transformation of tangible
raw materials into some form of product. Over time, the
nature of the product has evolved until today we see
information and intellectual property serving as the raw
material for the development of wealth. There is hardly an
organization today that does not rely on information to
survive.
Recent decades, however, have witnessed a radical change
equal in force to the printing press in the means by which
information is collected, stored, retrieved, criticized,
discovered, and promoted. The pervasive spread of
technology and the means of instant communication and
information sharing have created a second information
revolution. One of the distinguishing features of today’s
information revolution – just as in the day of Gutenberg – is
10
the affordability of the new technologies, as well as access

by the masses, rather than by an elite few.
Perceptions of the world and its population are being
changed through the availability of information in the form
of electronic media. Future generations may experience a
new form of information described through electronic
documents rather than the written word only. In fact, the
many-to-many communication medium of networked
technology facilitates the process of maintaining, updating,
and distributing knowledge, resulting in immediately
available and constantly updated information. Just as in the
period following the invention of the printing press and the
wider distribution of books and learning to the homes of the
populace, the increased availability and affordability of
technology that can collect, store, process, and transmit
information positions today’s citizens for similar
phenomenal change.
Not only has the capability to distribute and update
information been enhanced, but also the ability to retrieve
that information has taken another momentous leap.
This profusion of new technologies for collecting,
processing, transmitting, and displaying information – often
collectively called the ‘information revolution’ – are altering

the familiar political, economic, socio-cultural, and military
dimensions in ways that we do not fully comprehend, and at
a rate that people find difficult to accommodate. The
information explosion is affecting the global distribution of
power.
Information technology also has the ability to shape the way
in which individuals interact with information and
knowledge. The new information capabilities enable rapid
access to information on any topic of immediate concern.
11
Individuals have access in real time to what is occurring

across the globe, resulting in a more informed and aware
populace. One of the groups affected most directly by
information technology and the associated information
revolution is our youth.
Peter Drucker6 pointed out that as early as the age of four,
children are displaying computer skills, perhaps even
surpassing those of their elders. They are growing up with
computers as their toys, their companions, and their tools.
Today, there is incongruence between the way schools still
teach and the way twenty-first-century children learn. This is
very similar to what occurred in the sixteenth-century
universities, a hundred years after the invention of the
printing press and the availability of books and access to
knowledge.
Such major changes in environmental or technological
conditions often stimulate new patterns of social
organization that in turn demand new cultural responses; e.g.
the development of new institutional arrangements and
behavioural norms appropriate to the altered conditions. This
process extends beyond learning how to implement the new
technologies to the more encompassing issue of social
reconstruction in the face of new environmental or
technological conditions. In other words, the prevailing

network of social, economic, and political considerations
influence how we respond as the challenge of adaptation is
accepted, as new technology is developed and as new
purposes are applied.
6
Peter F. Drucker was a writer, management consultant and university
professor. He coined the term ‘knowledge worker’ and is known for his
works describing the knowledge economy.
12
One further bastion of industrial society, the physical

presence of many commercial providers, has seen erosion as
a consequence of the new information technology.
Further Reading:
Drucker, P. (1994, November) ‘The age of social transformation’.

The Atlantic Monthly, 53-80.
The ‘dark side of high tech’

Information technology spans the globe and there is no doubt
that it has been beneficial for human civilization. And while
some nations have chosen to reject or delay the unrestricted
advance of information technology, for the most part, we
have all profited from its existence. Our lives have become
richer, prosperity has increased, and information technology
has provided a conduit for increased opportunity.
Throughout history, individuals have fallen blindly in love
with new technology while easily discarding the old. The
endless pursuit of new technologies has often been seen as a
panacea for resolving all the complex questions of existence.
Infatuated with the technology itself and not always aware of

its full implications, mankind can easily become a slave to
the technology. For example, cars were invented to provide a
more convenient and rapid means of transportation. But their
invention was followed by a long line of problems –
dependence on oil, rubber refining, and congestion – which
in turn generated a sequence of technical solutions, each
ultimately leading to environmental pollution, increased
traffic management challenges, and a whole host of thornier
problems.
13
So, for every beneficial advance in the area of information

technology, there is also an accompanying negative. In our
ever-growing dependence on information technology, we are
also exposed to increased risk. The dark side of the new
information technology is based on the ability to exploit
vulnerabilities associated with technology. The effects of this
exploitation not only have the potential to cause enormous
damage to individual victims, but also to negatively impact
confidence in the information technology itself. Information
technology has become essential to the everyday operation
of most organizations and businesses, and disruption of those
services could cripple a company – or even a nation.
Uses of the new technologies illustrate some of the darker
features of behaviour and raise issues that should not be
ignored. Among the most important are the potential loss of
privacy and the lack of adequate laws and practices to
protect individuals and groups from misuse of their personal
information.
New technologies also make it much simpler for those who
are so inclined, to produce and consume what many would
consider undesirable kinds of entertainment – child
pornography, for example. Another unintended consequence
is the movement of traditional and new crimes to the world
of information technology; whereby hiding evidence of

criminal behaviour or developing new forms of criminal
behaviour will become increasingly simpler, especially as
society becomes more technologically informed.
So, what are the scenarios that keep those concerned with IT
security awake at night?
• Increasing dependence: Increased societal and individual
dependence on computers and communication systems
makes these systems a target for attack. The terror threat
14
towards computer intensive systems will grow as these

get more and more important for modern societies.
• Increasing complexity: The increasing complexity of
networks creates an environment that may lead to
increased catastrophic failures. It is likely that no one
truly comprehends the complexity and interdependencies
of the networks that are being built. The networks will
continue to expand exponentially into a single, advanced
integrated IP network handling the majority of the
world’s communications needs. This converged,
broadband, intelligent network will extend well beyond
voice and data, local and long distance, supporting an
ever-widening array of services, and blurring distinctions
among networking, computing and applications. Driven
by e-business requirements and facilitated by
technological advances such as e-switching and next-
generation satellites, the increasing externalization of
networking will give rise to an environment where
applications, content, and data reside in the network and
are dynamically handled by network service providers in
real time, without user intervention.
• Increasing content: An ever-increasing amount of data is
being compiled daily on our individual buying habits,
mobile phone usage, credit card purchases, and more.

Indeed terabits of personal data are being accumulated
and aggregated with little consideration for our privacy.
Content is at the core of business transactions,
publishing, and entertainment. The diversity, volume,
and effect of content will grow such that during the next
10 years, we will experience unprecedented levels of
interactive content, driving valuable revenue streams for
publishers, corporations, and media companies. Content
15
will be accessible almost anywhere via broadband. The

effects of this will stretch from the corporation into the
home, as rich media content will be stored and managed
in digital asset management systems. High-value content
will have to be delivered securely. In the enterprise, the
ongoing digitization of more and more information,
including document authorization, will fully ease in
digital process management for more and more business
processes.
• Increasing mobility: Mobility represents the next major
business and technical discontinuity facing large
enterprises. While the PC and Internet revolutionized
communication systems, mobility will revolutionize
information flow affecting business users, customers, and
partners. As early as 2005, the Gartner Group anticipated
that by the year 2007 more than 60% of the EU and US
population aged 15 to 50 would carry or wear a wireless
computing and communications device for at least six
hours a day, by 2010 this is expected to be more than
75% (Source: Gartner Group 2005). By 2010, less than 5
percent of global wireless subscribers will be using true
4G technology, but 15 percent will be using components
of a full 3G architecture based on LAN/WAN integration
and IP applications. In its 2008 predictions, inCode7

announced 2008 as a year of increasing importance for
wireless, especially for the security implications of an
increasingly mobile wireless user population.
7
inCode, acquired by Verisign in 2006, has been publishing its wireless
predictions annually since 2003. See www.verisign.com/verisign-
inc/news-and-events/news-archive/us-news-2007/page_043246.html
16
• Increased intelligent devices: While general-purpose

computers are interconnected via the Internet, billions of
miniature intelligent devices already inhabit the world,
with their number increasing faster than the human
population. The next ten years will bring new
capabilities: a) many physical objects will be coded and
therefore will become uniquely identifiable (radio-
frequency identification or RFID); b) intelligent devices
will be embedded in many physical objects, and will be
networked via the (mostly) wireless Internet.
• Increased globalization: More and more software and
hardware will be developed in low cost countries such as
India and China. Commodity computer hardware,
firmware, and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software
are now being developed and manufactured in a number
of foreign countries. Some of these have traditionally
been openly hostile to the US, and some of their software
industries may even be subject to direct influence or
pressure from their governments. Frequently, the origin
of a given software application may be difficult or even
impossible to determine (especially in the case of open
source software). And still, many governments have
instituted policies to give preference to the purchase and
use of COTS software over custom-designed products.

Considering this, any hostile nation state or group with
software development capability and an agenda could be
in an ideal position to sabotage software or hardware
developed for export.
Could anyone have foreseen this dramatic turn of events?
Many consider the first individual to clearly address this
growth trend was a man named Moore. In 1965, Intel
Corporation’s co-founder and Chairman Emeritus, Gordon
17
E. Moore, postulated that the number of transistors per

square inch on integrated circuits doubles every year. This
idea, called Moore’s Law, is based on the idea that
computing power increases at a steady and predictable rate.
References:
Postman, N. (1990) Informing Ourselves to Death. From a
speech given at a meeting of the Gesellschaft fuer
Informatik, Stuttgart, Germany, October 1990. Retrieved
from http://www.frostbytes.com/~jimf/informing.html
18

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CHAPTER 1: WHAT TECHNOLOGY GIVETH IT

‘Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in

Despite Postman’s dire prediction, society has profited

From the printing press to the information age

societies. The factor that distinguishes the period of

just a technological discovery to which society must adjust.

The printing press

Gutenberg’s first printing press was invented by converting

The Renaissance also owes its spread across Europe to the

availability of scientific data relied on the printing press,

scholars and clerics, learning through books gradually

Dewar, J. A. (2000) The information age and the printing press:

The new information age5

never before seen.

Over 100 years ago, the emergence of the telegraph

the affordability of the new technologies, as well as access

collectively called the ‘information revolution’ – are altering

Individuals have access in real time to what is occurring

technological conditions. In other words, the prevailing

One further bastion of industrial society, the physical

Drucker, P. (1994, November) ‘The age of social transformation’.

The ‘dark side of high tech’

Infatuated with the technology itself and not always aware of

So, for every beneficial advance in the area of information

of information technology; whereby hiding evidence of

towards computer intensive systems will grow as these

mobile phone usage, credit card purchases, and more.

will be accessible almost anywhere via broadband. The

and IP applications. In its 2008 predictions, inCode7

• Increased intelligent devices: While general-purpose

use of COTS software over custom-designed products.

E. Moore, postulated that the number of transistors per

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