Military Officer - June 2008 - (Page 63)

tacks. Hans Elmar Remberg of Germany’s Ofﬁce for the Protection of the Constitution pointedly used the phrase “Chinese cyberwar” in describing the attacks. If the attacks on Estonia were intended to test Western defenses and intimidate the tiny Baltic nation, China’s attacks were aimed at stealing Western technology. “Across the world, the People’s Republic of China is intensively gathering political, military, corporate-strategic, and scientiﬁc information in order to bridge their technological gaps as quickly as possible,” Remberg says. In June 2007, for instance, the Pentagon disabled e-mail systems that serve the Ofﬁce of the Secretary of Defense, after it was discovered the PLA had hacked into the system. Some 1,500 computers were taken ofﬂine. Cyberspace allows you anonymity, and the amount of damage you can cause to an advanced, industrialized nation is absolutely unquantifiable. — Dr. Lani Kass After the cyberattacks, Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, who heads the U.S. Air Force Cyberspace Command (see “Cyberterrorism Threat?”, page 64), reported Beijing is striving to become a cybersuperpower stronger than the U.S. Indeed, Beijing’s growing cyberwarfare capabilities are no surprise to Pentagon planners: I The Pentagon’s 2007 report on the military power of China notes the PLA is establishing information warfare units and integrating computer network operations into the wider military. Quoting China’s own strategy papers, the report warns Beijing’s goal is “to weaken the enemy side’s information superiority” and ultimately ﬁeld a force capable of “winning informatized wars by the mid-21st century.” I In 2001, after U.S. and Chinese planes collided near Hainan, China attacked 1,200 industry and government Web sites. That same year, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported China was deploying a “net force” to complement the rest of its military. I In 1998 and 1999, the U.S. government uncovered hundreds of attempts by China to penetrate computer networks at U.S. nuclear laboratories. The Department of Energy even was forced to shut down part of its network for two weeks in 1999. China is just one of many countries waging cyberwar against the U.S. There were more than 37,000 attempts to penetrate U.S. government and industry networks in 2007, and CRS reports at least 20 countries conduct operations against America’s swath of cyberspace. Even worse news is America’s cybercapabilities are not nearly as strong as they need to be. According to Gen. James Cartwright, USMC, who commanded U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) until his recent appointment to vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, “We lack dominance in cyberspace and could grow increasingly vulnerable if we do not fundamentally change how we view this battle space.” According to Cartwright, “America is under widespread attack in cyberspace.” Calling cyberspace “the nervous system of our country,” he warns America’s “freedom to use cyberspace is threatened by the actions of criminals, terrorists, and nations alike.” For instance, Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder conﬁrms there are “millions of scans of the DoD Global Information Grid (GIG) per day.” The GIG is crucially important to our nation’s security, as it allows U.S. forces and commanders to share and access information anywhere on Earth. An Air Force video provides a real-world example: The GIG enables a Marine in Iraq, an unmanned Predator drone ﬂying overhead and its technician back in the States, a patrolling F-18 pilot, and a commander far away from the front lines to communicate and collaborate on how best to eliminate an enemy sniper position — all in the span of two minutes. The result is what Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne calls “the new American way of war,” one that is “virtually dependent on cyberspace.” Because of that dependence on cyberspace and our enemies’ determination to exploit it, Cartwright argues it’s time to “apply the principles of warfare to the cyberdomain.” That means cyberattacks must be deterred and, if necessary, answered in kind. “The defense of the nation WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Are you concerned with the threat of cyberterrorism? Do you think enough is being done to protect the nation? Visit www.moaa.org/discussion and click on Cyberterrorism to weigh in. JUNE 2008 MILITARY OFFICER 63 http://www.moaa.org/discussion

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Military Officer - June 2008 Contents MOAA Online From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire MOAA Member Services Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor MOAA Scholarship Donors Cover Story: Mission to Modernize World War Web Playing to Win Fitness in Numbers Fighting Infection Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2008

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