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

by David E. Sanger

Not surprisingly, when the Times prepared to publish some of these details, NSA officials declined to confirm, at least on the record, that the documents described any of their programs. Off the record, they said it was all part of a new doctrine of “active defense” against foreign cyberattacks. In short, it was aimed more at surveillance than at “computer network attack”—NSA-speak for offensive action. The problem, of course, is that the Chinese would never believe this. When Americans find similar “implants” in our gas-distribution network, or financial markets, we immediately assume the worst—that China is preparing to attack. I asked one senior NSA official how they might signal to China, or any other adversary, that these were merely monitoring tools, not digital land mines set to explode in a few years. “That’s the problem,” he said. “We can’t convince them. And they can’t convince us.”

Yep