... but if I were, I would be sure to go to this debate, by the US branch of the Intelligence Squared debate organization, on the proposition that "The Cyber War Threat Has Been Grossly Exaggerated."
A few months ago, just as cyber-security was starting to pop up as a major media and political theme, I published this article in the Atlantic about the reasons to take the issue more seriously than most people had until then. Shortly after that, I noted the reasons to wonder whether appropriate concern about info-security was turning into self-generated panic -- and into that old Washington staple, "threat inflation" to build big defense-contracting budgets.
Four of the people I'd most like to hear engage that exact question will be doing so in the June 8 debate:
Mike McConnell, retired Navy Admiral and former Director of National Intelligence and head of the NSA (and now an executive with Booz Allen), whom I quoted in my article and who is probably the most visible proponent of the "cyber-threat is real" theme;
Bruce Schneier, Mr. Security, who will argue that the concern has indeed been grossly overblown (my recent conversation with him here);
Jonathan Zittrain, of Harvard Law School, arguing on McConnell's side; and
