US Cybersecurity Plan Includes Offense

z4ns4stu writes "Shane Harris of the National Journal describes how the US government plans to use, and has successfully used, cyber-warfare to disrupt the communications of insurgents in Iraq. 'In a 2008 article in Armed Forces Journal, Col. Charles Williamson III, a legal adviser for the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency, proposed building a military "botnet," an army of centrally controlled computers to launch coordinated attacks on other machines. Williamson echoed a widely held concern among military officials that other nations are building up their cyber-forces more quickly. "America has no credible deterrent, and our adversaries prove it every day by attacking everywhere," he wrote. ... Responding to critics who say that by building up its own offensive power, the United States risks starting a new arms race, Williamson said, "We are in one, and we are losing."'"

Comments

Perfectly Logical

[antirelic]

There is only so much you can do on the defensive. The US has been fairly defensive in protecting the IT infrastructure of our society and our government networks. As everyone knows, you can only keep someone out for so long before they finally figure out how to get through. The best way to keep your networks protected is by eliminating the threat. The old adage "a good defense is a great offense" holds true till this day.

That line of thinking may piss off the peacenicks and the neo-marxists, but anyone who has ever had to deal with a chronic problem of coming under attack from foreign entities with no recourse, knows that the available solutions are just as bad as the problem (having back bone providers hobble foreign ISP's access results in reduced commerce). The internet is the modern "ocean" of the colonial period. Pirates like to hide in lawless (or hostile to the target) regions for protection. I dont think these internet pirates should be provided any different protection than the pirates of the Caribbean.