Cyberwarfare in the United States
Cyberwarfare in the United States is a part of the American
military strategy of
Proactive Cyber Defence and the use of cyberwarfare as a platform for attack.
The new United States military strategy makes explicit that a cyberattack is
casus belli just as a traditional act of war.
In 2013 Cyberwarfare was, for the first time, considered a larger threat than
Al Qaeda or terrorism, by many U.S. intelligence officials.
Representative
Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
for instance, said in late July, 2013, that “most Americans” do not
realize that the United States is currently in the middle of a “cyber
war.”
U.S. government security expert
Richard A. Clarke, in his book
Cyber War
(May 2010), defines "cyberwarfare" as "actions by a nation-state to
penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of
causing damage or disruption."
[51]:6 The
Economist describes
cyberspace as "the fifth domain of warfare,"
and
William J. Lynn, U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Defense, states that "as a doctrinal matter,
the Pentagon
has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare . . .
[which] has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea,
air, and space."
In 2009, President Barack Obama declared America's digital
infrastructure to be a "strategic national asset," and in May 2010 the
Pentagon set up its new U.S. Cyber Command (
USCYBERCOM), headed by General
Keith B. Alexander, director of the
National Security Agency (NSA), to defend American military networks and attack other countries' systems. The EU has set up
ENISA
(European Network and Information Security Agency) which is headed by
Prof. Udo Helmbrecht and there are now further plans to significantly
expand ENISA's capabilities. The United Kingdom has also set up a
cyber-security and "operations centre" based in
Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ), the British equivalent of the NSA. In the U.S. however, Cyber
Command is only set up to protect the military, whereas the government
and corporate infrastructures are primarily the responsibility
respectively of the
Department of Homeland Security and private companies.
In February 2010, top American lawmakers warned that the "threat of a
crippling attack on telecommunications and computer networks was
sharply on the rise."[54]
According to The Lipman Report, numerous key sectors of the U.S.
economy along with that of other nations, are currently at risk,
including cyber threats to public and private facilities, banking and
finance, transportation, manufacturing, medical, education and
government, all of which are now dependent on computers for daily
operations.[54] In 2009, President Obama stated that "cyber intruders have probed our electrical grids."
The Economist writes that China has plans of "winning
informationised wars by the mid-21st century". They note that other
countries are likewise organizing for cyberwar, among them Russia,
Israel and North Korea. Iran boasts of having the world's second-largest
cyber-army.
[52]
James Gosler, a government cybersecurity specialist, worries that the
U.S. has a severe shortage of computer security specialists, estimating
that there are only about 1,000 qualified people in the country today,
but needs a force of 20,000 to 30,000 skilled experts.
At the July 2010
Black Hat computer security conference,
Michael Hayden,
former deputy director of national intelligence, challenged thousands
of attendees to help devise ways to "reshape the Internet's security
architecture", explaining, "You guys made the cyberworld look like the
north German plain."
In January 2012,
Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the
National Security Agency under President
George W. Bush told the
Reuters news agency that the U.S. has already launched attacks on computer networks in other countries.
McConnell did not name the country that the U.S. attacked but according to other sources it may have been Iran
In June 2012 the New York Times reported that President Obama had
ordered the cyber attack on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.
In August 2010, the U.S. for the first time warned publicly about the
Chinese military's use of civilian computer experts in clandestine
cyber attacks aimed at American companies and government agencies. The
Pentagon also pointed to an alleged China-based computer spying network
dubbed
GhostNet that was revealed in a research report last year.
The Pentagon stated:
- "The People's Liberation Army is using "information warfare units" to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and those units include civilian computer professionals. Commander Bob Mehal,
will monitor the PLA's buildup of its cyberwarfare capabilities and
will continue to develop capabilities to counter any potential threat."
- Cyberspace technology is emerging as an "instrument of power" in
societies, and is becoming more available to a country's opponents, who
may use it to attack, degrade, and disrupt communications and the flow
of information. With low barriers to entry, coupled with the anonymous
nature of activities in cyberspace, the list of potential adversaries is
broad. Furthermore, the globe-spanning range of cyberspace and its
disregard for national borders will challenge legal systems and
complicate a nation's ability to deter threats and respond to
contingencies.[62]
- With very little investment, and cloaked in a veil of anonymity, our
adversaries will inevitably attempt to harm our national interests.
Cyberspace will become a main front in both irregular and traditional
conflicts. Enemies in cyberspace will include both states and non-states
and will range from the unsophisticated amateur to highly trained
professional hackers. Through cyberspace, enemies will target industry,
academia, government, as well as the military in the air, land,
maritime, and space domains. In much the same way that airpower
transformed the battlefield of World War II, cyberspace has fractured
the physical barriers that shield a nation from attacks on its commerce
and communication. Indeed, adversaries have already taken advantage of
computer networks and the power of information technology not only to
plan and execute savage acts of terrorism, but also to influence
directly the perceptions and will of the U.S. Government and the
American population.
- American "Kill switch bill"
On 19 June 2010, United States Senator
Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced a bill called "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010",
which he co-wrote with Senator
Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator
Thomas Carper (D-DE). If signed into law, this controversial bill, which the American media dubbed the "
Kill switch bill", would grant the
President
emergency powers over parts of the Internet. However, all three
co-authors of the bill issued a statement that instead, the bill
"[narrowed] existing broad Presidential authority to take over
telecommunications networks".