Lawrence Lessig, a noted legal activist and futurist if you’re not familiar with him, theorizes an “i-9/11” (inside job or otherwise) after which the Government would expand its control and supervision over the internet substantially. I think he’s hit the nail on the head and actually I’m surprised it didn’t happen years ago. It’s a bit conspiracy theory-ish (InfoWars!), sure, but to be honest it pays to be paranoid these days, and also to listen to people like Lessig.
The real interesting question, of course, is what would this attack consist of? A distributed system like the internet would have to take a pretty heavy fundamental hit. What do you guys think it would take to make a true internet disaster?