02 December 2009 : CBC Radio - As It Happens
Do you remember the movie "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick? You know, the one where he plays a teenaged hacker who breaks into the Pentagon computer and plays a game called "Global Thermonuclear War"? In case you haven't found the time to see that movie in the twenty-seven years since it was released, spoiler alert: turns out he nearly leads the world into "mutually assured destruction".
Well, even all these years later, a new report out of London's Institute of Strategic Studies suggests the film's plotline may not be so far-fetched. Mutually assured destruction might be overstating things slightly -- but the institute warns cyber-warfare is going to be a serious threat in the future. A threat that could have serious implications for all of us.
Nigel Inkster is the Institute of Strategic Studies' Cyber-Warfare expert. We reached him at his office in London, England.
