On Cyberthugs and Pimply Kids

I read an article about a cyberterrorism attack on Estonia, allegedly launched by the Russians, all because of the removal of a statue of a Russian war hero. What happened was that millions of computers tried to access Estonian websites all at the same time, thus going over the bandwidth capacity of the country. The servers crashed, resulting in the paralysis of eStonia, with Estonia being the most wired country in the European Union.

It got me wondering: What if the Philippines was attacked too? Highly improbable, not because our cyberborders are sealed airtight, because they aren’t, but because, who would even think of attacking the Philippines? But what if the lights do go out in cyberPhilippines?

Aside from the banking industry coming to a standstill, nothing much would change. True, people would go hungry if they can’t order from mcdelivery.com.ph. Pimply teenagers would start riots all over the metro without Dota to keep them busy. And in the land of twentysomethings, depression would ensue without the daily dose of celebrity gossip juice from pep.ph.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, we are not as wired as Estonia. Should we be?