Panetta Sounds Alarm on Cyber-War Threat

            As we all know, warfare has been around for centuries upon centuries. However, this article explores the rise of a new warfare that may be just as dangerous. Cyber Warfare is a new worldwide issue on the rise. On Thursday, Leon Panetta, the United States defense secretary, came to the nation’s financial hub – New York City – to issue his battle cry. The city is the brightest bulls-eye on the American target for enemies wishing to cripple the U.S. economy with computerized “worms” and “malware” that can infect computer networks and virtually paralyze our country. These new attacks have the capability to take down a power grid, water system, transportation system, or even our entire financial system. Considering the US is always on the technological radar, the U.S. military is stepping up its offensive cyber war capability. Major defense contractors see cyber defense as the next post-9/11 money pot making annual cyber spending about $12 billion. This article was written by Time Magazine's writer Mark Thompson, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who has covered national security in Washington since 1979, and for Time since 1994. The context that prompted the publication of this article is simply the recent rise in concern of cyber warfare. Also, this article is prompted because the author does not want our country to sit back and wait for a crisis to happen, which is what the United States tends to do. So, the purpose of this article is to inform American society of the new threat that is taking over our country. The author wants the American people to be aware of what our technology can do, and the new threat it is producing worldwide. The audience, as mentioned above, is simply American society. The first step to prevention is knowledge. So the more American society is informed, the less likely a naïve American will fall suspect to deception. There are several rhetorical elements used in this article. However, I am going to focus on two. The most prevalent of the bunch is definitely pathos. The author appeals to pathos continuously throughout his article. To offer an example, he writes, “Panetta warned of cyber terrorists derailing U.S. passenger trains – as well as trains laden with lethal chemicals.” As easily felt by reading this sentence, the author is appealing to our emotions to draw us towards the subject being discussed and realize that cyber warfare is not just a bunch of hocus pocus; it is real. The author uses pathos in this instance to create a negative tone, which in turn creates an image that nauseates the reader.  Another rhetorical device used was an anecdote. The anecdote written in this article was the recount of the “Shamoon” virus attack on the Saudi Arabian state oil company, Aramco. The virus strike wiped out 30,000 of the companies computers. It created the image of a U.S. flag in flames on the infected computers and it burned the computers up. The use of a particular instance or concrete example to support his claim assisted the author because it makes the article even stronger. The use of a concrete example made it so readers do not view cyber warfare as a foreign topic, but instead a real issue. The author did accomplish his purpose in his article. Specifically, the utilization of rhetorical devices helped to support his purpose of informing American society of this new threat and increase awareness to prevent cyber warfare. He used powerful words and examples to instill the sense of fear in the readers, which again benefitted his purpose. Overall, the author constructed an effective article to get his purpose across to the audience.