US government security alarmism continues with Obama’s ‘doomsday’ comments
Mon 13 Oct 2014
In the wake of recent statements from the head of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General regarding the dismal future of national security in a world of client-side encryption, comments on the fearful prospect of cyber-incursion from President Barack Obama have been leaked to the Fox Business Network.
According to Fox, President Barack Obama is far more worried about the potential of cyber attacks than the current fears about the spread of Ebola.
Several guests at a fundraising tour in New York have reported the president’s comments on the increasing climate of paranoia at the vulnerability of an increasingly net-connected government infrastructure. One of the guests is reported to have said: “The president is worried that cyber criminals could literally wipe out the identities of millions of people through some breach of government systems and that could lead to massive chaos.”
At the residence of Bill White, the erstwhile Intrepid Museum President, Obama is said to have declared that “it would take Bonnie and Clyde a thousand years to do what three people in a room with a server can now do.”
Another guest, apparently an insider expert on the fundraiser meetings heard the president’s outline of a “doomsday” scenario that could ensue if hackers were to breach banking security systems and government online infrastructure.
All three are reported to have heard Obama describe a potential situation in which hackers “could steal $100 million” and “take down the banking system”.
Obama also apparently commented that “15 years ago, cyber terrorism wasn’t even on the radar screen, but that it will be one the biggest concerns for whoever is president after him”.
Allowing these comments to emerge from secure and confidential environments is in effect tantamount to a press conference for Obama. In the light of the recent FBI and Attorney General statements, it could be argued as evidence of a systemic pre-action campaign on National Security. The elliptical delivery method suggests that some genuine political or legislative reaction is coming to the recent controversy about the growing popularity of client-side encryption in consumer devices, in the threat posed to monitoring services by consumer use of the Tor network, and in the growth and increasing use of ‘zero-knowledge’ storage, where commercial storage concerns are unable to decrypt their clients’ data even when compelled by court order.
