The internet has very quickly become essential to the world's commerce and communications, not to mention science, government, defense, administration...you name it. And yet it has proven to be highly vulnerable to criminals, vandals, pranksters, terrorists, military attack and espionage. Losses due to unauthorized activity, and the costs of technical defenses against these activities, must be enormous.

Granted, the system as a whole has been shown to be quite robust, when compromised, it continues to operate, albeit at reduced efficiency. But the fact remains that it doesn't take the resources of a government or giant corporation to mount an attack that can be devastating to the victim. Not only is protecting and repairing the system expensive, the capabilities lost while it is down could be critical. And the efforts of the attackers, often just adolescent amateurs, seem to have no trouble keeping up with the evolution of our defenses.

And yet, we continue to design our society to be more and more dependent on this technology, simply because it appears to be cheaper.
I don't think it is. I just believe we are not properly taking into account the costs and potential costs. And I believe one day it will bite us in the ass big time.