The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

M A R C H 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 pact, despite the exaggerated, sensa- tionalistic language many analysts em- ploy to assess them. Accordingly, rolling all these activities into a single statistic leads to grossly misleading conclusions about the likelihood of concerted cyberattacks and the dam- age they might inflict. Sommer and Brown point out that many critical computer systems are well enough protected that designers of new cyberweapons would first have to identify new weaknesses, then learn how to exploit them—a tedious, time- consuming process. Moreover, the ef- fects of cyberattacks are difficult to predict due to the interconnectedness of systems, and could well backfire on the perpetrators and their allies. All that said, the authors do en- courage governments to take steps to withstand and recover from a wide range of unwanted cyberevents, both accidental and deliberate. But such preparations are complicated by the fact that large sections of the critical national infrastructure of most OECD countries are in private hands, not under direct government control. The authors flag three current trends of particular concern. First, World Wide Web portals are being in- creasingly used to provide critical gov- ernment-to-citizen and government- to-business facilities. Although these portals potentially offer cost savings and increased efficiency, overdepend- ence on them could result in a repeti- C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: http://iranprimer.usip.org/ Ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the West has struggled to understand the Islamic Republic and how to deal with it. The challenge looms even larger in the face of Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, disputed 2009 elections, growing human rights violations and angry rhetoric. Although The Iran Primer promotes a new book with a similar title ( The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and U.S. Policy , U.S. Institute of Peace, 2011), the Web site stands on its own. Each link connects to a chapter in the book addressing one of 62 subjects in 10 categories, with printable PDF attachments available at the bottom of each chapter. (The entire book is available free on the site.) In addition, each week new analysis is added to the “Author Talk” section, analyzing recent developments in Iran. Both in the book and on the site, 50 top Western and Iranian experts, including scholars from 20 think-tanks and eight universities, as well as senior foreign policy officials from six U.S. administrations, offer comprehensive but concise overviews of Iran’s politics, economy, military, foreign policy and nuclear program. Reflecting the diversity of the site’s contributors, no single political perspective or agenda pre- dominates. The Iran Primer also features a wide-ranging database of chronologies, nuclear sites, sanctions resolutions and other information, including an Iran Factbox with a map of the country and a wealth of statistics. These are constantly updated to pro- vide reliable information about the many facets of a complex country with which the United States has not had diplomatic relations for more than three decades, offering context and analysis for what lies ahead. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Legacy afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Arlington Court Suites arlington-court-suites.com Clements International clements.com Crises and Compassion www.mqup.ca Diplomatic Automobile Sales diplosales.com Hirshorn Company, The hirshorn.com Inside a U.S. Embassy afsa.org/inside/ ProMax Management Inc. promaxrealtors.com SDFCU sdfcu.org TetraTech tetratech.com WJD wjdpm.com