U.S. Defence Department has revealed Thursday its strategy on enhancing network security and the capacity to better deal with cyber attacks.
“In the twenty-first century, the bytes are as dangerous as bullets and bombs,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, presenting the new Pentagon strategy.
“A few keystrokes on a computer keyboard in one country can have an impact in the other corner of the planet in the blink of an eye”, he said.
This strategy, which considers cyberspace a field of action as the sea, the air or space, requires not only installing a firewall, but make the potential opponents believe that it’s not worth the effort.
A purely defensive approach does not allow possession of a coherent strategy, said General James Cartwright in turn, Deputy Chief of Staff joint, evoking the Maginot line.
“So far, 90 percent of our attention is focused on building firewalls and 10 percent in the means to prevent an attack”, he said. The objective from now on is to consider both deterrence and protection, according to General Cartwright.
“Every time someone spends thousands of dollars to design a virus, we spend millions (to prevent the damage). We are on the poor side and we have to change this”, he added, without further clarification.
According to the Washington Post, this more offensive attitude leads to the design of viruses that can sabotage enemy networks as what Stuxnet did against Iranian nuclear program.
A virus attack will not lead to a military response, however, said General Cartwright. But William Lynn said that the United States reserves the right to a “proportionate and justified military response” to these attacks.
With 15,000 computer networks and seven million computers distributed in hundreds of installations worldwide, the U.S. defense is the target of million attacks every day.
In March, 24,000 computer files on weapons systems under development have been stolen, William Lynn, Deputy Secretary of Defense admitted.
The author of this intrusion was not identified but “we believe that this was committed by a foreign intelligence service”, he said.
The new strategy, which unclassified version was published, provides in particular the cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, the private sector and allies to better protect sensitive information.