Waiting For Our Cyber 9/11

U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is interviewed by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, Sept. 12, 2011. The appearance was Mullen's third visit to the show and his first after having Stewart accompany him on a USO troop visit to Afghanistan in July of this year. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/Released)

Waiting For The Cyberbarbarians -- Robert Haddick, Foreign Policy

If cyberwar is such a threat, why is the Pentagon doing so little to prepare for it?

Cyberwarfare unleashes confusion on Washington

Last month, while reviewing his career a few days before retirement, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen discussed what he sees are the two "existential" threats facing the United States. After nuclear weapons, Mullen listed cyberattacks, which, he said, "actually can bring us to our knees." During the Cold War, the United States developed an elaborate deterrence doctrine, backed up by an enormous investment in strategic nuclear weapons. Asked about similar preparation for the cyber threat, Mullen said, "We're a long way from that right now." This week, Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kelher, commander of Strategic Command, the command responsible for the Pentagon's cyber operations, said there still needs to be "a full conversation" about doctrine, rules of engagement, and legal issues regarding the Pentagon's responses to cyberattacks.

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My Comment: I can only presume that the U.S. will get its act together on cyber defense (and attack) only after a successful attack on some critical features of our digital infrastructure. It seems that we need a cyber 9/11 wake-up call.

The Case For Cyberwarfare

Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force

The Case for Cyberwarfare -- Tim Maurer, Foreign Policy

Why the electronic wars of the future will actually save lives.

According to an intriguing story in this week's New York Times, the Obama administration decided not to use cyberwarfare against Libya, opting instead for a conventional attack on Muammar al-Qaddafi's defense installations. Officials feared that it would set a precedent and invite other countries (think: China, Russia) to use similar means of attack in the future. As James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, succinctly put it, "We don't want to be the ones who break the glass on this new kind of warfare."

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My Comment: What is my take .... cyber weapons and the tools to conduct cyber war are just that .... another weapon system. But some are now arguing that such tools are actually more than that .... and that some are evolving to be the equivalent to a "hydrogen bomb of cyberwarfare". If that does become the case .... maybe the case for cyberwarfare should be one in which we must thread very carefully .... especially if the opponent can do what we are capable of doing.

A Standard In Cyber-Defense -- A Commentary

Image from Kal Sketchblog

A Gold Standard In Cyber-Defense -- Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins and Tom Carper, Washington Post

The history of Internet security is both worrisome and instructive. When the first virus — the “Morris worm” — was launched in 1988, the Internet was a closed system of 60,000 computers used almost exclusively by academic, government and military researchers. Morris used known vulnerabilities in communications software to knock offline about 10 percent of the computers tied to the Web. The cry immediately went out for greater security, but complacency soon set back in.

Today, the Internet has more than 2 billion users — one in every three people on the planet. It is a nearly indispensable tool of modern life. But consider just a few high-profile victims of successful computer intrusions in recent months: Sony, Citigroup, the International Monetary Fund, the Gmail accounts of high-ranking U.S. officials and the computer security company RSA — an intrusion that seems to have played a part in later attacks on Lockheed Martin and perhaps other defense contractors that use RSA products.

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My Comment: The U.S. Senate is positioning themselves to write legislation that will police the internet. I wish them luck.

China's Cyberassault On America (A Commentary)

Image: David Gothard

China's Cyberassault On America -- Richard Clarke, Wall Street Journal

If we discovered Chinese explosives laid throughout our national electrical system, we'd consider it an act of war. China's digital bombs pose as grave a threat.

In justifying U.S. involvement in Libya, the Obama administration cited the "responsibility to protect" citizens of other countries when their governments engage in widespread violence against them. But in the realm of cyberspace, the administration is ignoring its primary responsibility to protect its own citizens when they are targeted for harm by a foreign government.

Senior U.S. officials know well that the government of China is systematically attacking the computer networks of the U.S. government and American corporations. Beijing is successfully stealing research and development, software source code, manufacturing know-how and government plans. In a global competition among knowledge-based economies, Chinese cyberoperations are eroding America's advantage.

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My Comment: Richard Clarke lays it all down .... but no one is listening.

An Analysis On The Pentagon's Emerging Cyberwarfare Doctrine

A map is displayed on one of the screens at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado July 20, 2010. A yet-to-be-seen Pentagon document on cyberwar is expected to outline when the US will respond to cyberattacks. Rick Wilking/Reuters

The Pentagon's Cyberwarfare Doctrine Begins To Emerge -- Foreign Policy

Pentagon planners are dusting off the Cold War deterrence playbook to plan for cyberattacks, but Iraq and Afghanistan would be better models.

This week, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Pentagon strategists are completing a document that outlines the government's cyberwarfare strategy. The Pentagon is expected to publish an unclassified version next month. According to the Journal, Pentagon strategists are prepared to declare that a sufficiently damaging cyberattack against the United States could be viewed as an "act of war," warranting equivalent retaliation. And that retaliation would not necessarily be a U.S. cyber-counterstrike. As one official put it, "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks." It is good that the government is finally establishing a doctrine for dealing with cyberwarfare. But strategists still must grapple with a challenging form of warfare that combines elements of Cold War-era deterrence theory and modern counterinsurgency doctrine.

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My Comment: An argument for a more proactive approach towards cyber warfare. My prediction .... the Pentagon will not go there.

A U.S. Strategy To Combat Foreign Cyberattacks (Commentary)

Google Inc.'s offices in Beijing, China. Google Inc., owner of the world's most popular search engine, said hackers tried to steal passwords from hundreds of Gmail users, targeting the accounts of government officials in the U.S. and Asia. (Keith Bedford/Bloomberg)

A U.S. Strategy For Fighting Cyberattacks -- L.A. Times editorial

The Pentagon is developing a new cyberwarfare strategy that calls for the use of military force in response to certain kinds of damaging online attacks on U.S. institutions.

The Pentagon is developing a new cyberwarfare strategy that calls for the use of military force — including conventional weapons — in response to certain kinds of damaging online attacks on U.S. institutions. That's fine in theory; if foreign agents launch a cyberattack on, say, the nation's electrical grid, it may be both reasonable and proportionate to fire missiles at, say, the attacker's energy supplies. But as recent hacks and phishing attacks on Google's Gmail service and on defense contractor Lockheed Martin indicate, the theory may not translate well to the murky, messy reality of what's happening online.

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My Comment: A sobering look at what are our limits when it comes to responding to a cyberattack. In addition, Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker has a must read piece on the what to expect from China and future cyber attacks .... China's 'blue army' just warming up with cyber-attacks.

The Cyber Military-Industrial Complex Takes Shape (A Commentary)

The New Cyber Military-Industrial Complex -- Ron Deibert And Rafal Rohozinski, Globe And Mail

In the aftermath of the revolution that brought down Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, protesters burst into the building that housed the state security services and combed through thousands of documents left by the departing regime. Among the files listing paid informants, tortured confessions and acts of secret manipulation was one rather exceptional document: a contract from an obscure German firm selling cyberwar software to the Egyptian regime. The document, quickly posted on the Internet, provided a detailed glimpse inside the black arts of today’s world of electronic warfare.

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My Comment: A sobering assessment on where cyber security and cyber warfare is going, and the industry that is being formed around it. Read it all.

The Cyberspy Threat -- A Commentary

From New York Post:

Foreign Hackers Target Military

AMERICA needs to pay a heckuva a lot more atten tion to the cyberthreat. Now.

Sure, the Pentagon is refuting a Wall Street Journal report last week that hackers pinched loads of data on the military's newest, high-tech fighter aircraft from contractors' computer networks via the Internet.

But even if the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program wasn't actually penetrated by cyberspies, it's still a chilling wake-up call for the United States.

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