Any emerging threat presents new challenges on policy, legal authority, budgeting, such as we have witnessed, for example, since 9/11. And today, in the field of cyber, we want to start by asking really a fairly basic but I think important question, and that is, what is the role of the Department of Defense in defending the country in cyberspace?
If a formation of planes or some hostile-acting ships came barreling towards a factory or refinery in the U.S., I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what we would expect from the Department of Defense. They may try to identify who it is, divert them over to another area. They may even go so far as to shoot them down. But the bottom line is we expect our military to protect us from threats that we cannot handle on our own.
But what do we expect, or what should we expect, if a bunch of malicious packets, or potentially malicious packets, come barreling at us--or come barreling at the same facilities in cyberspace? I am not sure we have a good answer to that. And if we figure out what we expect, then the question is, can the government do what we expect? Does it have the ability and the authorization to do it?
If a formation of planes or some hostile-acting ships came barreling towards a factory or refinery in the U.S., I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what we would expect from the Department of Defense. They may try to identify who it is, divert them over to another area. They may even go so far as to shoot them down. But the bottom line is we expect our military to protect us from threats that we cannot handle on our own.
But what do we expect, or what should we expect, if a bunch of malicious packets, or potentially malicious packets, come barreling at us--or come barreling at the same facilities in cyberspace? I am not sure we have a good answer to that. And if we figure out what we expect, then the question is, can the government do what we expect? Does it have the ability and the authorization to do it?
