Hackers Silence Political Speak

The latest reports about Thursday's denial-of-service attack that brought down Twitter and slowed Facebook point to a Georgian blogger as the hacker's primary target. Allegedly, the attack was intended to silence his pro-Georgia commentary posted on multiple social media sites.

Little more is known about the source of the attack, but the idea that hackers could infiltrate applications for the sole purpose of squashing someone's means of communication is relatively new -- and a threat to the Obama administration's own strategy to use social media sites to keep citizens informed.

It's no secret that Obama leveraged social media to gain momentum during the election and now to communicate his agenda, policies and whereabouts in real time. We've watched him address the nation on YouTube, promote health care reform on Facebook, and even tweet in Farsi during a visit to Iran. That makes this notion that hackers could block our ability to access such communication troubling. Worse yet, hackers could use malicious code to manipulate the messages themselves, leaving the Obama administration with a public affairs nightmare at best, or national hysteria at worst. These are all possible scenarios.

To some, this doesn't seem like that significant a threat - and maybe for now, it's not. But imagine in decades past if all major television networks were silenced exactly when a presidential address was scheduled to happen; as we march further along into this era of Web 2.0, crushing online communications from the White House will be nearly as bold.

Most security experts argue that the benefits that come from utilizing Web 2.0 technologies outweigh the risks -- particularly when appropriate precautions are taken to ensure computer users are well-informed about how to protect themselves from cyberattacks and social media providers incorporate strict security standards. Still, just as the Obama Administration marches ahead with new innovative ways to leverage new media, more attacks are reported.

Where's the cyber czar when you need him -- or her.