Obama talked about the need for cyberdefense during the State of the Union Address last night. It's high time: America has been playing offense for years, now it's time to play defense.
By Kelsey D. Atherton Posted 02.13.2013 at 2:00 pm 7 Comments

Learning Cyberwar
Learning Cyberwar Wikimedia Commons

In his State of the Union Address last night, Obama highlighted the need for better America cyber defense:

Earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.

There's a reason Obama emphasized defense in his speech: America is already pretty good at offense. America's STUXNET attack on the Iranian nuclear program is probably the best-known example, but it's hardly the only thing out there. The Air Force specifically and the Pentagon more broadly have made acquiring cyber weapons an explicit goal. Cyberweapons have even made their way to the Army, which wants to give cyber tools to generals fighting wars oversees. These capabilities are all about striking at enemies, and focus on breaking the networks or tools they need to function.

Relatively speaking, breaking something is easy. Protecting American assets through better cyber defense, however, has presented a challenge. Since so much of the vulnerability is in private businesses and institutions, defense isn't a task (like launching attacks) that the government can assume on its own. That is why yesterday's Executive Order on cybersecurity is so important. By setting up information-sharing programs with private business, Obama is creating a way for cyber-threats collected by intelligence agencies to fall into the hands (and the IT departments) of the businesses that most need that information.

This latest executive order comes five months after the Obama Administration's first presidential directive on cybersecurity, and while the improvements have yet to be implemented, the structure of defense is taking shape.

7 Comments

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Oakspar77777
02/13/13 at 3:10 pm

Except that war is not a game of rock, paper, sissors.

It is a game of rock, spear, bow, gun, missile.

The key to knowing how to defeat an attack is to have designed that attack before.

Thus, the "all offence" strategy keeps us developing the latest and greatest in cyberwarfare.

Sure, there will be the occasional David who makes the rock relevant against Goliath for a moment, but better attacks make for the best defense.

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lifestream
02/13/13 at 3:18 pm

or its actually more about enforcing more ways to legally track people and limit privacy and freedom of speech.

They need to b able to "access" private files, communications to ensure that they don't contain terrorism related content.

Or "protect" against terrorists posting about anything anti-government in Facebook - yes... you are a terrorist if you post "Obama is gay" at your Facebook page.

This isn't about defense - its about control. It's a grey area that is very easy to abuse.

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lifestream
02/13/13 at 3:20 pm

no edit, so should add:

The great Firewall Of China - for the defense of the people and government.
We all know what its actually doing. The next is Great Firewall Of USA.

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Sumer (not verified)
02/13/13 at 5:10 pm

I would love to see Microsoft send out a close, shut down, scrap the illegal stolen Microsoft Operation systems, thereby reducing a great bunch of the home hackers in China.

And they could not blame the USA for anything, since in fact, it is a stolen OS, ha ha.

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lifestream
02/13/13 at 7:38 pm

you do know that if illegal windows os wouldnt have spread, linux and mac woulc be the dominant Operating systems and Microsoft would be in a different business.
So piracy literally changed the world.

Not to mention that massive amount of useful, good programs, discoveries etc are direct result of access t illegal windows. If those persons would never had one (too poor to buy one perhaps), they may have end up on completely different fields yet again.

Who knows how many scientific discoveries, cures, and art would be undone if it never were illegally obtainable.

Directly saying that only hackers use illegal windows is like saying hat only thieves use crowbar.

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judiqw
02/14/13 at 8:46 am

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do,

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astivender
02/14/13 at 11:56 am

That photo is pretty old. I am in the Navy and we haven't used the utility uniform since 2009. However, I did enjoy reading this article.

"Motivation and dedication are the tools that drive the engine of excellence" - Me



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