>> We are fortunate that terrorists, by and large, are dumb.
> How so? Drive a van into a crowd of people, and it's spread across the papers and people talk about it for ages. Cut regional power briefly and it's forgotten before next week.
Driving a van into a crowd of people is only local and the damage is contained.
Cut regional power briefly is temporally local and damage is contained.
There are far more permanent and non-localized things that a "smart" terrorist could do. Fortunately, there is almost always a much more useful way to put "smart" knowledge to use than terrorism.
Right. I think it was Schneier who pointed to the DC sniper as one of the most efficient models of terrorism. Two guys with a car and a rifle paralyzed a city for weeks.
Pedestrians are walking around moving cars everywhere. Some number of people will be terrorized whenever they notice a car is not moving like they expect.
> How so? Drive a van into a crowd of people, and it's spread across the papers and people talk about it for ages. Cut regional power briefly and it's forgotten before next week.
Driving a van into a crowd of people is only local and the damage is contained.
Cut regional power briefly is temporally local and damage is contained.
There are far more permanent and non-localized things that a "smart" terrorist could do. Fortunately, there is almost always a much more useful way to put "smart" knowledge to use than terrorism.