On Cybersecurity, Cyberterrorism, and IRL

In discussing Conflict Resolution, the broad category of terrorism often arises in course discussions.  Interestingly, the question recently arose about whether cyberterrorism will ever be seen as a concern as pressing as “physical terrorism.”  I suppose this was prompted by the recent digital attacks on companies like Sony, where the greatest loss is, perhaps, an inconvenience.

The concern seems clear – if the choice is between Blue Cross being hacked and people needing to double-down on their identity fraud protection and a bomb going off on a busy public street, shouldn’t the bulk of our time and resources be directed at the one which might pose lethal risk?

This distinction between “physical terrorism” and cyberterrorism relies, in large part, on a false dichotomy between the physical world and the digital world – as if physical objects are not often controlled by computers or other digital devices.  Many writers have talked about the disconnect between your life online and "IRL."  Except in a world where you can lock your front door from your phone, disable alarm systems from your laptop, and drone strikes are conducted from behind computer screens, making this assumption is not only unrealistic but irresponsible.

Thankfully, the U.S. government does not seem to be making the same mistake about assuming cyberterrorism is categorically different or less serious.  Two days ago, the President issued an executive order focusing on Cybersecurity.  While it’s great to see someone taking the possibility of a full-scale assault on communication networks seriously, it still seems to take the issue less than seriously, and also focus primarily on the communication and economic impacts.  You can read the White House’s summary of the initiative here.

Interestingly, the government should be among those who most know the physical implications of cybersecurity threats.  After all, with ties to the infamous Stuxnet virus that took out an Iranian nuclear facility, the U.S. government is fully aware of the potentially catastrophic risks to physical infrastructure and human life that can come from the undermining of digital networks.  But hey, that was an Iranian nuclear facility – and it’s not like there aren’t, you know, 1500 nuclear plants worldwide whose reactors were created by the same company and likely susceptible to the same or similar digital attacks.

Insecurely yours,

Rachel Leigh

On Digital Humanities and My Job

I don't often talk about my work, but seeing as I'll be doing it 40 hours a week for the next seven weeks, maybe it's not such a bad idea to give everyone a little 'splaining.

If you followed the other blog linked to this account, you probably know I'm a writing consultant, as I used that blog to discuss the training process and the challenges I expected to face as a writing consultant.  But what you may or may not know is that for the last three years, I have worked at the UR Digital Scholarship Lab.

The DSL is a Digital Humanities research lab.  To a lot of people, digital humanities sounds like something of an oxymoron, because the humanities (history, philosophy, etc) tend to be pursuits we naturally link with neo-Luddism.  Okay, no, most people don't think it's an oxymoron -- mostly, they just kind of look at me like "huh?"

Our work in the lab is some bizarre hybrid of historical research and computer science skills that come together to create interesting historical resources which match the modern age -- interactive maps, updated digital archives, things which make often inaccessible research or concepts modern and graspable.

My pet project since I've worked there has to be Visualizing Emancipation -- an interactive map of the emancipation process during the Civil War.  A lot of people think (and we're certainly taught) that Emancipation happened when Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation and, like a magic spell, all the slaves were free.  Maybe, if your education was a little more in-depth, you were taught that what gave the emancipation of slaves legal teeth was the passing of the 13th Amendment.  Yay no more slaves!

What VE shows is the fact that the process was much more complex than that, and also precisely that -- it WAS a process.  Every emancipation event in the database corresponds to a primary or secondary source which can point to the exact date at which a slave ran away, was liberated, was re-enslaved, or any number of other major events which focus on the fact we're not just talking about a historical or political moment in time.  We're looking at the lives of people with real agency and whose freedom was not simply given to them.

This is not even to touch on the continuing plight of slaves and human trafficking victims which persists in a country that points to a point in history as the time when Americans stopped owning other Americans.  But that's a topic for another day.

For the time being, if you want to check out what I've been up to or the Visualizing project, you can go to http://dsl.richmond.edu, http://dsl.richmond.edu/emancipation, or follow the project on twitter at @vizemancipation.

Historically (and digitally) yours,
Rachel Leigh