The Department of Defense Must Combat Cyber Terrorism with Cyber Attacks
Abstract
U.S. and Allied critical infrastructure assets are exploited daily by terrorist actors from around the world. Terrorists use the Internet to plan attacks, train recruits, gain political support, and finance their operations. To prevent terrorist cyberattacks, new strategies must be employed against terrorist organization members, their assets, and their competencies. These strategies must degrade terrorists' ability to wage both information and kinetic warfare against the United States and its Allies. The Department of Defense (DoD) is unprepared to combat terrorism in cyberspace because it does not utilize offensive capabilities of cyberattack or active cyber defense against terrorist Command and Control (C2), training, political, and physical capabilities. The DoD is beginning to more fully understand the need for cyberattack capability. The Air Force is leading the DoD in this effort and is in the process of standing up a Cyber Command that will employ the full spectrum of cyberwarfare. These efforts include developing a cyberattack capability that can be used against state-sponsored and terrorist targets. This command and its capabilities are still under development and the Air Force is the only service actively seeking the capability to attack. All military and civil defense agencies of the DoD must acquire the ability to wage cyberwarfare and must be able to strike terrorists with preemptive and retaliatory cyberattacks. The DoD must attack terrorists' ability to gain political power, train, and control its operatives, and it must destroy the terrorists' capabilities to launch attacks against the United States and its Allies. The DoD's lack of cyberattack and active cyber defense capabilities limit its ability to execute the fundamentals of offensive warfare and to protect the nation from terrorist threats.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 20, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA500190
Entities
People
- P. A. Snyder
Organizations
- Marine Corps University