cybersecurity

Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace – NYTimes.com

The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

This is a complete overhaul of US safeguards for its computer networks set in motion by President Obama. The administration will be creating a new White House office that reports to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. This new effort has the “multibillion-dollar” price tag but will secure access to government computers and protect systems that run stock exchanges, global economic transactions and traffic control systems. I’d say it’s money well spent.

But he [President Obama] is expected to sign a classified order in coming weeks that will
create the military cybercommand, officials said. It is a recognition
that the United States already has a growing number of computer weapons
in its arsenal and must prepare strategies for their use — as a
deterrent or alongside conventional weapons — in a wide variety of
possible future conflicts.

UDPATE: Here’s more coverage from Wired

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Apparently, No. From the New York Times “Panel Advises Clarifying U.S. Plans on Cyberwar“…

The United States has no clear military policy about how the nation might respond to a cyberattack on its communications, financial or power networks, a panel of scientists and policy advisers warned Wednesday, and the country needs to clarify both its offensive capabilities and how it would respond to such attacks.

Don’t worry – they have a plan.

Pentagon and military officials confirmed that the United States reserved the option to respond in any way it chooses to punish an adversary responsible for a catastrophic cyberattack. While the options could include the use of nuclear weapons, officials said, such an extreme counterattack was hardly the most likely response.

So rather than addressing the situation at hand – cyber-security – we drop blanket threats basically saying, If you attack our information infrastructure, we will nuke you.

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