The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age

by David E. Sanger

In almost every classified Pentagon scenario for how a future confrontation with Russia and China, even Iran and North Korea, might play out, the adversary’s first strike against the United States would include a cyber barrage aimed at civilians. It would fry power grids, stop trains, silence cell phones, and overwhelm the Internet. In the worst-case scenarios, food and water would begin to run out; hospitals would turn people away. Separated from their electronics, and thus their connections, Americans would panic, or turn against one another.

After a decade of hearings in Congress, there is still little agreement on whether and when cyberstrikes constitute an act of war, an act of terrorism, mere espionage, or cyber-enabled vandalism.

But figuring out a proportionate yet effective response has now stymied three American presidents. The problem is made harder by the fact that America’s offensive cyber prowess has so outpaced our defense that officials hesitate to strike back.

cyberpower conundrums. The United States can’t figure out how to counter Russian attacks without incurring a great risk of escalation. The problem can be paralyzing.

Nuclear arms were designed solely for fighting and winning an overwhelming victory. “Mutually assured destruction’’ deterred nuclear exchanges because both sides understood they could be utterly destroyed. Cyberweapons, in contrast, come in many subtle shades, ranging from the highly destructive to the psychologically manipulative.

Such “dialed down” cyberweapons are now used by nations every day, not to destroy an adversary but rather to frustrate it, slow it, undermine its institutions, and leave its citizens angry or confused. And the weapons are almost always employed just below the threshold that would lead to retaliation.

we are inventing new vulnerabilities faster than we are eliminating old ones.

As of this writing, in early 2018, the best estimates suggest there have been upward of two hundred known state-on-state cyberattacks over the past decade or so—a figure that describes only those that have become public.

in the world of cyber conflict, attackers came in five distinct varieties: “vandals, burglars, thugs, spies, and saboteurs.”

Every time the United States reaches into another nation’s critical infrastructure, we make our own fair game for retaliation.