The recent media furor over Wiki Leaks and it’s founder, Julian Assange reminded me that I had a prediction on the table regarding cyber wars. During last week’s cyber attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and other major targets, cyber hackers acted in defiance of the global system and began a proactive defense of the WikiLeaks, slamming servers once believed impenetrable. The prediction: “An entire generation of young people—raised on technology in the volatile political climate of Eastern Europe—are the recruiting grounds for the REAL “Info Wars”—wars where the ability to game sophisticated networks, hack complex software, and manipulate encryption will be key to “liberating” hard assets like money, food, munitions, electrical power, and battle-winning data.”

One of the great wars of the near-future will be tech wars on the web…manned by “tech kiddies”: young, tech-savvy ex-patriates who hack, crack, and exploit for the sheer joy of confounding and infuriating their counterparts in the military, intelligence, and industrial-financial systems…who hold no allegiance to any government, any currency, or laws—national or international…raised on technology in the volatile political climate of Eastern Europe…where the ability to game sophisticated networks, hack complex software, and manipulate encryption will be key to “liberating” hard assets like money, food, munitions, electrical power, and battle-winning data.