Information warfare is divided into two schools of thought.
The first predicts large scale calamities if drastic, and expensive actions, are not taken to protect the U.S. information infrastructure from attackers. This type of information warfare is often referred to as the Electronic Pearl Harbor. The second school of information warfare takes a less apocalyptic view. Supporters of this view believe that the nation's computer infrastructure is so redundant and fault tolerant that the possibility of hackers causing widespread damage is remote. For example, a group of teenagers crashed New York City's Con Ed Power Company in 1995 by attacking the telephone company's Manhattan switch.