Will hacking become the new warfare?
By Reuters
June 22, 2001, 9:55 a.m. PT
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6351674.html?tag=prntfr
WASHINGTON--Russia and China appear to be developing computer-based tools
with the potential to do long-lasting harm to
the U.S. economy, a top intelligence official told Congress on Thursday.
Such arms will give future foes new leverage over the United States,
including a way to ratchet up pressure and the prospect of
anonymity, said Lawrence Gershwin, the CIA's top adviser for science and
technology.
Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee, Gershwin cited what he
called some nations' public acknowledgment of the
role cyberattacks would play as the "next wave of military operations."
"We've certainly seen that from countries such as China and Russia," he
said. While he mentioned no other states by name,
he said a "fair number" had "active" programs, adding that most of his
information on the subject was classified.
"We watch them very intensely," Gershwin said. "Some of them are aimed at
the United States, and some of the others are
probably aimed at others."
"For the next five to 10 years or so, only nation-states appear to have the
discipline, commitment and resources to fully
develop capabilities to attack critical infrastructures," he said.
The United States itself is working to integrate keyboard-launched attacks
and network defense into "all military plans and
operations," Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, deputy commander in chief of the
U.S. Space Command, told House Armed
Services Committee members Wednesday.
"We need to continue developing computer network attack strategies through
simulations and war gaming to improve our
understanding of the potential collateral effects associated with such
actions," he said. "Collateral" damage is military jargon
for spillover to civilians.
Duane Andrews, an assistant secretary of defense for command, control and
intelligence in the first Bush administration, told
the hearing that the United States had lost ground in dealing with
cyberthreats.
The Defense Department should be prepared if necessary to help protect
"networks of critical importance" to U.S. economic
security, said Andrews, now an executive vice president of employee-owned
Science Applications International, a major
defense contractor.
In other testimony, Frank Cilluffo, co-chair of a task force on cyberthreats
at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies, urged the creation of a White House post to oversee
the government's cyberdefense strategy.
Gershwin said "bombs still work better than bytes" for guerrillas. "But we
anticipate more substantial cyberthreats in the future
as a more technically competent generation enters the terrorist ranks."
Although the harm done by hackers is well publicized, they pose a negligible
threat to national-level infrastructures like
transportation grids or financial networks, partly because they lack the
skill or motive to mount a sustained attack, he said.
"National cyberwarfare programs are unique in posing a threat along the
entire spectrum of objectives that might harm U.S.
interests," including "long-duration damage to U.S critical
infrastructures," Gershwin said.
He predicted computer viruses were likely to become more controllable,
precise and predictable, "making them more suitable
for weaponization."
Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, the panel's ranking Republican and chairman of
the defunct Senate Year 2000 committee, urged
industry to join government in strengthening U.S. cyberdefenses.
"In an interconnected world, the private sector is on the front line," he
said.
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