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In reply to the discussion: NSA Chief General Kieth Alexander and "The Secret War" [View all]Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)13. I'm continuing to read.
This article is fascinating, though really scary.
The cat-and-mouse game could escalate. Its a trajectory, says James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The general consensus is that a cyber response alone is pretty worthless. And nobody wants a real war. Under international law, Iran may have the right to self-defense when hit with destructive cyberattacks. William Lynn, deputy secretary of defense, laid claim to the prerogative of self-defense when he outlined the Pentagons cyber operations strategy. The United States reserves the right, he said, under the laws of armed conflict, to respond to serious cyberattacks with a proportional and justified military response at the time and place of our choosing. Leon Panetta, the former CIA chief who had helped launch the Stuxnet offensive, would later point to Irans retaliation as a troubling harbinger. The collective result of these kinds of attacks could be a cyber Pearl Harbor, he warned in October 2012, toward the end of his tenure as defense secretary, an attack that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life. If Stuxnet was the proof of concept, it also proved that one successful cyberattack begets another. For Alexander, this offered the perfect justification for expanding his empire.
Ironic that we refer to a potential "cyber Pearl Harbor" on our systems, while we had already effectively done the same. Would we not expect a response? These people are playing with fire and our lives!
Another thought that occurred to me was the fact the US government's zeal with going after Manning, Drake and Snowden. If anyone had access to sensitive network blueprints not unlike what we had for Iran with our Stuxnet offensive, they could reveal that information to Iranian operatives, and really do unspeakable damage to our infrastructure and economy.
This cat is out of the bag. Cyber attack will beget cyber attack. Retaliation could very possibly leave the whole world figuratively blind (if not literally).
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This is absolutely, without a doubt, Orwellian, Outrageous, and Alarming!
Fantastic Anarchist
Jun 2013
#7