Pentagon Prepares Cyber Warfare Strategy

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Pentagon Prepares Cyber Warfare Strategy

Al Pessin | The Pentagon

The Pentagon is expected to issue its cyber warfare strategy in the next few

weeks, providing more detail about possible U.S. responses to attacks on key

computer systems.

Two weeks ago, the White House released its International Strategy for

Cyberspace, which, among other things, declares that the United States will use

" all necessary means " to defend its vital cyber assets. The strategy says the

United States " will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as [it] would to any

other threat, " including specifically reserving the right to respond with

military action.

Pentagon Spokesman Colonel Lapan repeated that view on Tuesday. " A

response to a cyber incident or attack on the U.S. would not necessarily be a

cyber response. So, all appropriate options would be on the table if we were

attacked via cyber, " he said.

The White House strategy was not a surprise, culminating a long effort to

officially identify computer networks as a vital national interest, which, if

attacked electronically, could result in a retaliatory strike.

Now the Pentagon is working on a follow-up document to lay out its role in

implementing the White House strategy. Colonel Lapan declined to provide

details Tuesday, but said the document will likely not provide specific

consequences for specific types of attacks. " If we are attacked, we reserve the

right to do any number of things in response, just like we do now with kinetic

attacks. Military option is always a resort. There are other things we could

do, " he said. " But it won't necessarily lay out, `if this happens, then this

will happen.' "

Lapan says a more general statement asserting the right to retaliate by a

variety of means is likely a better deterrent to any potential attackers.

Former senior U.S. defense official Gallington, now at the Potomac

Institute, says Pentagon strategy documents are usually more about capabilities

than specific actions. " The Pentagon doesn't decide when we go to war. And the

Pentagon doesn't decide these policy questions. The Pentagon is the doer. They

are the ones who take action when they are directed by competent political

authority and the command structure. The Pentagon is in the training and

equipping business. And what they do is, they have to anticipate the kind of

capabilities that they're going to need to have in the future for future

conflicts, " he said.

Documents like the Pentagon cyber strategy serve to provide direction to the

military services, combat commands and defense agencies so they can develop

specific plans, and seek the funding and authorization to develop specific

capabilities.

Gallington says he hopes the document includes a variety of capabilities

designed to prepare the U.S. military to respond to serious and minor cyber

attacks, and everything in-between, using both military and electronic means.

That would provide a full range of options for a president faced with a decision

about how to respond to a cyber attack.