In Cyberweapons Race, Questions Linger Over U.S. Offensive Capability - Series - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print


April 28, 2009
U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses

By DAVID E. SANGER, JOHN MARKOFF and THOM SHANKER
This article was reported by David E. Sanger, John Markoff and Thom  
Shanker and written by Mr. Sanger.

When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a  
trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered  
information that drove them into American gun sights.

When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress  
toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an  
experimental covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into  
their computers and undermine the project.

And the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a  
highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is  
to simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the  
country’s power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or  
freeze the financial markets — in an effort to build better defenses  
against such attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons.

Just as the invention of the atomic bomb changed warfare and  
deterrence 64 years ago, a new international race has begun to develop  
cyberweapons and systems to protect against them.

Thousands of daily attacks on federal and private computer systems in  
the United States — many from China and Russia, some malicious and  
some testing chinks in the patchwork of American firewalls — have  
prompted the Obama administration to review American strategy.

President Obama is expected to propose a far larger defensive effort  
in coming days, including an expansion of the $17 billion, five-year  
program that Congress approved last year, the appointment of a White  
House official to coordinate the effort, and an end to a running  
bureaucratic battle over who is responsible for defending against  
cyberattacks.



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