[118388] in Cypherpunks
RE: 'Americans will die on U.S. soil' from high tech terror (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Sun Sep 26 16:34:32 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-Id: <199909262020.PAA31085@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 15:20:54 -0500 (CDT)
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Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
----- Forwarded message from Lucky Green -----
From: "Lucky Green" <shamrock@cypherpunks.to>
Subject: CDR: RE: 'Americans will die on U.S. soil' from high tech terror
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 12:58:54 -0700
Of course Americans are no more vulnerable today to bios than they were 20
years ago. We are still the same species we were 20 or a 100 years ago. And
designer bugs are still rather uncommonly found in the possession of those
that might use them.
----- End of forwarded message from Lucky Green -----
Wrong. Americans today are pretty much immune to measles, smallpox, polio, etc.
We may be the same species we were 100 years ago but the environment we live
in isn't.
While it is true that the current cost to break into the designer bug market is
high and the resources are rare as time goes by this will change and both of
these will come down drasticaly. In a few years parents will be able to go
into a pre-natal clinic and have their child examined for genetic issues. If
they are found the mother will receive a cold virus with the appropriate
plasmid and the problem will be resolved. Shortly after this criminal
organizations of small size and regional scope will begin to steal this
equipment because they can use it.
Imagine walking into a bank with a virus that causes people to go comatose. The
carrier walks into the bank, breaks the vile and then waits the few minutes it
takes for the air conditioning to scatter the spores. By suitable genetic
manipulation of splitting rates everyone on the bank could be overcome in a
few minutes. Those who leave during the distribution phase actualy help the
bank robber because they will sucumb at other places than the bank (say
driving their car on a busy highway) which will further dilute the resources
available to deal with the bank itself.
The flesh eating bacteria seem like a good candidate as well.
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The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate
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