I read an article today about a 2008 breach of military computers by a foreign intelligence agent. As simple as a flash drive and a rogue program that would pull and deliver military intelligence to our wartime enemies. Actually, I guess rereading that sentence the whole operation doesn't exactly seem all that simple. Still though, a flash drive. Anyways, 2 years later and we're still not sure who was behind it.

Whether we like to admit it or not each one of us exists in an oddly defined network that connects us with millions, if not billions, of people worldwide. This amounts to our social networking sites and bank accounts, work emails, and THINQon user accounts. Even in the middle of this post I tabbed out and looked up my bank statements. What a chilling thought that a flash drive the size of my thumb could be put into a computer on the other side of the planet and seep out all kinds of information I consider pivotal in my day to day existence.

But just think about the information kept on military servers.

Information has become remarkably more significant in the last few decades. So much of our lives are transfered into bits and put on networks online. Most of us just blindly trust the security capabilities of these networks to safeguard all of our personal information.

I'm not really sure where I am heading with this post only that I feel remarkably queasy about this whole internet thing, especially when it comes to war. When we are using drones to hit targets from thousands of miles away, what comes of it if our servers are hijacked? Couldn't those drones suddenly miss their target point altogether? And hit somewhere else determined by our enemies?

 Of course, it might not work this way at all. Science fiction and all that. Your information will probably never be kidnapped. But undeniably as we increase our reliance on network technology in all walks of life, from personal to national to global to war, we are also inviting the possibility of flash drive loopholes. Just how much power we choose to give these networks will determine how far we can fall.