I recently read an article in the Washington Post that I thought you might be interested in. The article, published on March 27, 2012, discusses the current debate over U.S. military rules of engagement for launching cyberattacks on our enemies.
While some have argued that commanders on the battlefield should have this authority, the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command — General Keith Alexander — has come down on the side of requiring presidential authority to launch cyberattacks. I personally believe that the authority should be scaled depending on the origin and nature of the threat. Battlefield commanders should have the authority to defend their troops from cyberattack without having to go too far up the chain of command, especially in time-critical situations.
– Bob
Dr. Beyster, it is interesting that you labelled the attack as a threat. Going up the military chain of command has always been at the level of the threat, just sometimes we will need to coordinate at higher levels to make sure that we properly neutralize the attack and the nature of the threat as two streams of thought and thus complete the decision making process. I fully agree that too many decisions delays a proper response, which would have otherwise reduced the risk associated with the threat / attack in the early stages.
Extracted from your original blog post: “I personally believe that the authority should be scaled depending on the origin and nature of the threat.”
Paul: Good to hear from you. It is clear to me that keeping up with cybersecurity is going to require an increasing portion of future government budgets in a time when there is great pressure to reduce spending. — Bob