On 10/12, James Andrew Lewis wrote an opinion piece for Foreign Policy on the ramifications stemming from SecDef Panetta’s recent speech on cybersecurity. In that speech, SecDef Panetta noted the general threat of cyberattack, the vulnerability of U.S. critical infrastructure, and Iranian hostility in cyberspace. Check out more on the speech here. More importantly, SecDef Panetta laid out a doctrine of preemption:
If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take actions against those who would attack us to defend this nation when directed by the president.
Mr. Lewis, in exploring SecDef Panetta’s remarks, argued that we got here–the DoD defending cyberspace–because the Senate and House fumbled in passing cybersecurity legislation. Drawing parallels to NORAD’s defense of U.S. airspace, Mr. Lewis suggested that the DoD (or NSA) could play a greater role in U.S. cyberdefense by monitoring incoming traffic at internet backbones. Of course, that would raise substantial privacy concerns. Moreover, Mr. Lewis asks “how far down the Internet’s spine should the DOD go?” Does allowing the DoD or NSA to monitor private networks go too far?
Finally, Mr. Lewis considered preemption, reading the SecDef’s statements to say that “when an attack appears imminent, the president can direct the DOD to strike first.”
Great analysis, there’s more to the article, so you can find the rest of the Foreign Policy article by James Lewis here.
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