The risk of cyber war and cyber terrorism.

AuthorClarke, Richard A.
PositionRichard A. Clarke - Interview

How can the United States prevent a cyber war from breaking out and deter terrorists from targeting the country with cyber weapons? The Journal of International Affairs talked to Richard Clarke, who served as a senior White House advisor to three consecutive U.S. presidents, about cyber risks and how the United States can counter threats to its national security.

Is the threat of cyber war underplayed or overhyped?

This depends on how you define cyber war. If you define it the way I do, a government engaged in destruction against another within cyberspace, it hasn't really happened yet. The few instances of cyber attacks that have occurred (that we know about) have been executed with only limited objectives in mind. But that doesn't mean that a "full-scale" cyber war won't happen in the future--it most certainly will. The point is, though, that governments will only engage in "total" cyber war within the context of a war that they were already going to fight militarily otherwise.

Do U.S. leaders fully appreciate the cyber threats facing the country's national security?

I do think that U.S. leaders, by and large, understand the magnitude of the threat and the potential damage that cyber threats can inflict on our country, but they haven't yet acted on it. I believe it isn't clear to many of them exactly what action to take. Frankly, until the United States is the victim of a large-scale cyber attack, it is unlikely that lawmakers will prioritize increasing the resilience of our cyber infrastructure in the private sector.

Is it possible to build a credible cyber deterrent?

No, and cyber war is unique in this respect. We have to deter cyber attacks by threat of conventional or economic retaliation. It's difficult to develop an effective cyber deterrent, because you have to have already demonstrated the capabilities of your retaliatory arsenal. Your assailants have to know what you're capable of.

This wasn't a difficult thing to do in the Cold War, because you just had to detonate a few hydrogen bombs on some uninhabited island and everyone knew you had that weapon available to you. This is not really possible in cyber war for two reasons. First, every state's network infrastructure is different and you can't prove that an attack you carried out on Country A will also affect Country B. And second, there's no cyber equivalent of that uninhabited island that you can annihilate just to prove to everyone else that you can.

Deterrents also...

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