Hit ‘Em Hard
Way back when I was a kid, the municipal fire department had a system of pull-activated alarms that could send a signal for help in the event of a fire. The wise guys in the neighborhood thought it was kind of daring to set off false alarms now and then. The fire department, to its credit, would respond in full force, even though it might suspect that yet another false alarm had been rung.
In the cyberage, the errant of society don’t waste their time with false fire alarms on street corners. They create and send out viruses that bring whole portions of the Internet to its knees.
In the post-9/11 era, those who have an ax to grind don’t bother going the cyber-virus route (because that, at least, requires some programming ability). Instead, they send letters and packages loaded with white powdery substances to feign a mail-borne anthrax attack.
In all three instances society suffers great harm. The latter two inflict considerable harm to vital parts of the American economic infrastructure. Business resources are compromised, economic activity is stalled, and precious resources are wasted trying to diagnose and rectify the sociopathic behavior of a few.
In the early years of the Internet, some in society would hold virus creators as objects of awe.
