The idea was before its time, though, and nothing came of it. By 1990, considerably more was possible. These nodes were among the first targets struck. Twenty-eight minutes after the war began, Iraqi units were shut off from higher echelons, with no intelligence or direction. In the future, such operations may instead use information itself as a weapon and strike by means of computer viruses, logic bombs, deceptive jamming, swamping the adversary with data, or the alteration of information the enemy believes to be true.
Information warfare continues to evolve and grow in importance.
Nobody knows what will happen next, but for millions of Americans, the experience could move closer to home. Hacker sites on the Internet offer both targeting data and the tools to conduct an attack. The microchip revolution has made an incredible amount of information available. Doubtless, it is a great resource for those with a legitimate need for the knowledge, but it could be an equally great resource for others, such as terrorist organizations, whose needs are not legitimate. A Presidential Commission exploring the vulnerability of critical national infrastructures that range from the banking system to the water supply and continuity of government finds that 70 percent of what binds these infrastructures together is telecommunications connectivity.