The concept of Cyber Deterrence has been around for a while. In 2008 I pulled together several thoughts on Cyber Deterrence which had come out of years of dialog on the cyber threat. I wanted to capture some key challenges since in my view many were making foolish assumptions regarding what our nation should do in the domain of cyber. There is also a great deal of wise thought but this is not a topic we should treat lightly. In my view the wrong policy of cyber deterrence could be escalatory and have the unintended consequence of being bad for national security.
A great deal has changed over the last year and a half and I think it is time to update the paper. I’ll be sending it around to friends in the Cyber Conflict Studies Association and asking if they can point me to related research. I’ll e-mail it to government and national security thought leaders and ask if they have comments/thoughts they can share. I would also very much appreciate the views of technologists, since so much of this topic must be discussed with a good understanding of the technology foundations of Cyber.
So, I wanted to ask… If you have a few minutes would you please look over the May 2008 version of this paper and give me your thoughts? It is here:
https://ctovision.com/national-security-and-technology/towards-a-cyber-deterrent/
References:
What the New U.S. Intelligence Strategy Says About Cyber Threats
You think your business is primed to deal with any cyber threat – but what if it’s an inside job?
National Security and Technology
Discovering and proactively blocking malicious infrastructure
