U.S. Accelerating Cyberweapon Research: WashPo

On March 18th, 2012, Ellen Nakashima reported for the Washington Post on the Pentagon's efforts to acquire and develop cyberweapons.  Notably, the article explained how the Pentagon has gone gangbusters with regard to cybersecurity spending.  So far, the Pentagon has spent roughly $3.4 billion on offensive and defensive cybersecurity this year.  Moreover, DARPA received $500 million over five years to develop cyberweapons.

The WashPo article specifically focused on the development of cyberweapons.  In the context of air defense systems, a cyberattack could take down an early warning system, allowing for jets to streak in unannounced.  The Obama administration considered using cyberattacks to disable the Libyan air defenses, but we apparently lacked the necessary cyberweapon.  The WashPo cited another US official who said that we're still not ready to take down air defense systems with a cyberattack.  That's interesting, because this New York Times article said that President Obama abandoned the attac because of the fear that it would establish a precedent for China/Russia.  Whatever the case, we want more cyberweapons.

Interestingly, the article said that the Pentagons wants "cyberweapons capable of disrupting enemy military networks even when those networks are not connected to the Internet."  Traditionally, in order to deploy a cyberweapon, the targeted system has to be connected to the Internet.  It's difficult to use a cyberweapon against an offline system; unless you could physically access the system (maybe with a USB), you probably can't get the cyberweapon on there.  However, using radio signals to "insert computer coding into networks remotely", the U.S. could target offline systems.  That is too cool.

One last point.  The WashPo article quoted Lt. Gen. Charles R. Davis, commander of Hascom AFB, on the use of cyberweapons during an attack: [Cyberweapons] will probably never be just a standalone cyberattack on a network."  In this sense, cyberweapons would be used with other conventional weapons.

You can find the WashPo source article here.