Sorry, Steve, but I think you have it a bit wrong in your talk on what I'll term Cyber Deterrence (SN 1042). When a foreign power attacks your country, you don't complain on the nightly news. When they declare war on you, you don't fight back with strong words. You respond in like fashion, and ideally the other entity soon realizes the cost of such an action is far, far worse than whatever they hoped to gain. When the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, we did not just use strong words. We found the culprit and showed them the cost of their actions.
You state that the deterrence of U.S. military power and it's tools is self-evident. But that is only because history has shown the world just what our military can do, time and time again. Cannons were generally dismissed as toys until used effectively against formerly 'impregnable' fortresses. Submarines were considered impractical for war until Germany showed Britain what they could do. Before 1941, no one could imagine a single bomb leveling an entire city.
We have been attacked. There is no other description for what has happened to our power grid, hospitals, and banks. Yes, it's subtle, hidden behind digital masks of many types, but we know in many cases who is responsible. Cutting access to a modern country's power grid, hospitals and banks is no different than the sieges of old. They are removing access to these services in order to force a surrender. And our choices are to starve and die, politically, while our people suffer, or fight back.
Just like the schoolyard bully who will take advantage of anyone with a weak response to their tirades, we need to prove, unquestionably, that we are willing and able to fight back. And until we do, we're telling all the lesser would-be bullies that we're too afraid, and they, too, can get away with it. At least once, hopefully only once, we have to send a similar unequivocal message to the one we sent Japan: Push us too far, and we will end you - politically, financially, or otherwise - whatever it takes.
You state that the deterrence of U.S. military power and it's tools is self-evident. But that is only because history has shown the world just what our military can do, time and time again. Cannons were generally dismissed as toys until used effectively against formerly 'impregnable' fortresses. Submarines were considered impractical for war until Germany showed Britain what they could do. Before 1941, no one could imagine a single bomb leveling an entire city.
We have been attacked. There is no other description for what has happened to our power grid, hospitals, and banks. Yes, it's subtle, hidden behind digital masks of many types, but we know in many cases who is responsible. Cutting access to a modern country's power grid, hospitals and banks is no different than the sieges of old. They are removing access to these services in order to force a surrender. And our choices are to starve and die, politically, while our people suffer, or fight back.
Just like the schoolyard bully who will take advantage of anyone with a weak response to their tirades, we need to prove, unquestionably, that we are willing and able to fight back. And until we do, we're telling all the lesser would-be bullies that we're too afraid, and they, too, can get away with it. At least once, hopefully only once, we have to send a similar unequivocal message to the one we sent Japan: Push us too far, and we will end you - politically, financially, or otherwise - whatever it takes.
