Google: a terrorists' best friend

Most people use Google Maps just for fun, but what with people that have less good intentions. We all remember the terrorist attacs of 9/11 on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Notice the workers restoring the west wing of the Pentagon.

Is it such a good idea to offer these kind of terrorists sattelite imagery of North-America? I think that if terrorists would want to attack a target like the Pentagon, they will be able to gather the necesary data anyway, Google Maps or not. But it's certainly making things a hell of a lot easier for them. This made me wonder...could I plan an attack on a nuclear facility in the United States right here behind my laptop in Belgium? Lets find out... :-)

First goal: Find a list of all nuclear plants in America

Pretty easy, thanks to -yes again- Google. The 'International Nuclear Safety Center' is so kind to put up a good overview over the nuclear reactors in the US.

Second goal: Find a possible target

Because I want to have good satellite images of my target, I make sure I pick my target in a place where Google Maps has a lot of good satellite coverage. Lets pick the area with the lakes around Ohio. The Perry Nuclear Plant will do just fine. Thanks to the International Nuclear Safety Center I also have a lot of detailed data of the amount of power it can produce (read as: the amount of destructiveness it has).

Third and final goal: find my target on Google Maps

Apparently, Perry, Ohio isn't a very large city. Keeping in mind that nuclear power plants need water to generate steam, I went looking at the banks of the lake and within about 10 seconds: bingo! The 2 giant cooling towers are a clear give away.


My 'target'

Of course, it might be a bit ridiculous to say Google Maps helps terrorists. After all, even when you are at the top zooming level, you still can't clearly destinguish the different builings very well. But it does clearly show what Google's services are capable of, certainly when we'll see even more detailed pictures in the future. For now I'm closing this post and hope I won't end up on the FBI Black List.