As the digitisation of life proceeds apace, Elisabeth Braw (Opinion, August 13) raises some uncomfortable questions regarding the security of not only our digital infrastructure but also the physical infrastructure that is more and more dependent on digitisation.
This includes our energy systems, financial institutions, hospitals, and transport and communications systems that can all be seriously disrupted, crippled and possibly disabled by hostile states and non-state groups.
One solution to this growing problem is to deploy armed guards patrolling the infrastructure, yet this is not only expensive but is likely to fail as the hostile forces become familiar with the “routines” of patrolling armed guards.
A more reliable solution — but one that is also expensive — is a deliberate policy of redundancy and diversification of power sources in hospitals, transport and communications, and transport systems that will permit at least a rudimentary level of daily life to continue for most people.
While Taylor Swift fans were discomfited by the cancellation of her recent concerts in Vienna (“Taylor Swift concerts in Austria cancelled after terror plot uncovered”, Report, FT.com, August 7), private sector insurance contracts could probably address the monetary risks associated with those kinds of events.
However, national infrastructure is in a class by itself. More than half a century ago the economic disruption caused in Chile by striking truckers (financed by the CIA) was so effective that it paralysed the movement of goods to such an extent that it contributed to the military coup that ousted the Allende government.
Ira Sohn
Emeritus Professor of Economics and Finance
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair
NJ, US
