CyberStorm Read Online Free PDF

He smiled.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Most space systems are internet-based. To us, things in space look far away, but in cyberspace, there’s no difference.”
    “So what is the difference, then?”
    “The big difference is that while space requires a massive amount of money, all that you need to get into cyber space is a laptop.”
    Switching from the shrimp to the fries, I hunted for my own chunk of foie gras. “So that has you worried?”
    He shook his head. “What’s got me worried are those logic bombs in the energy grid you talked about. The Chinese wanted us to find them, so we’d know they could do it. Otherwise, we’d never have spotted them.”
    “So you’re saying the CIA, NSA, all those three-letter agencies you love to hate, none of them would have seen it?” I said skeptically.
    He shook his head. “People have this image of cyberwar, and they think of videogames and everything being squeaky clean, but it won’t be like that.”
    “So what will it be like?”
    “In 1982 the CIA rigged a logic bomb that blew up a Siberian pipeline—it created an explosion of three kilotons, as much as a small nuclear device. All they did was alter some code from a Canadian company that controlled it, and that was more than thirty years ago. You should see what they can do now.”
    “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
    “The new cyberweapons of mass destruction they’re building, nobody’s ever tested them,” continued Chuck, his smile gone. “At least with nuclear weapons you know they’re scary—Hiroshima, Bikini—but with cyber, nobody knows how much damage they’ll cause if they let them loose, and they’re merrily sticking them into each others’ infrastructure like candy canes on a doomsday Christmas tree.”
    “You really think it’s that bad?”
    “Do you know that when they set off the atomic bomb for the first time, during the Manhattan Project, the physicists running the show had a bet going whether it would ignite the atmosphere?”
    I shook my head.
    “Their best guess was fifty-fifty that they’d destroy all life on the planet, but they went ahead anyway. Government planning hasn’t changed, my friend. They have no idea what these new weapons they’re building might do.”
    “So there’s nowhere to run anymore if things go wrong anyway, is that what you’re saying?” I countered. “If it goes down, do you really want to be around to struggle and watch everyone die? I’d prefer a nice quick exit.”
    “You’re being awfully casual.” He looked at Luke on the couch. “You wouldn’t fight with everything you’ve got, till your last breath, to protect him?”
    I looked at Luke. He was right. I nodded slowly, conceding the point.
    “You have too much faith in things always moving forward,” he declared. “Since humans began making stuff, we’ve lost more technologies than we’ve gained. Society goes backwards from time to time.”
    “I’m sure you have some examples.” There was no use in trying to slow him down when he was on a roll.
    “On a dig in Pompeii, they found aqueduct technology better than what we’re using today.” Chuck dug into the pile of French fries and pulled out another glistening chunk of foie gras. “And how they built the pyramids is still lost tech.”
    “So now we’re talking ancient spacemen?”
    “I’m being serious. When Admiral Zheng pulled his fleet out of Suzhou in China in 1405, he had ships the size of modern aircraft carriers and took nearly thirty thousand troops with him.”
    “Really?”
    “Look it up,” he said. “Zheng was in contact with our West Coast Indians four hundred years before Lewis and Clark brought Pocahontas on holiday there. The Chinese were smoking reefers with the Oregon chiefs on ships bigger than modern battle cruisers a hundred years before Columbus ‘discovered’ America. Know how big Columbus’s famous Niña was?”
    I shrugged.
    “Fifty feet, and he had maybe fifty guys with