Cyber Warefare Offically Starts

Dariusz - Mon, 21 Aug 2017 18:00

The United States and many other countries around the world often engage in cyber attacks against business entities and geopolitical rivals. These clandestine operations range from barely noticeable to wholly disruptive. The US has been the victim of many attacks in recent memory, but our responses to them have been somewhat locked up in bureaucracy. President Trump announced recently that the US Cyber Command will be elevated to a Combat Command of its own. Let’s take a look at exactly what that means for the US.

Cyber Command Is now Officially its Own Combat Command

Elevating Cyber Command to a combat command status is a big development. Previously any operation within cyberspace had to go through one of the already existing combat commands which are based on region. Any cyber operation in Japan would fall under Pacific Command, any in Germany would be European Command, and so forth. Because of that, many operations would get bogged down when they had to move to a new part of the world. Different parts of the world mean different combat commands to work with.

The problem is fairly obvious, cyberspace is its own region and it is not necessarily tethered to specific locations outside of their physical servers -even those can be hidden, moved, etc-. This new designation of Cyber Command will help streamline any operations that we are currently running and make future operations more efficient. It should also help the United States’ ability to respond to the mounting threats and attacks from foreign and domestic actors. President Trump also said that this elevation in status should help secure funding for cyberspace operations as well. Prior to this, the budget for cyber operations would be lumped in with whatever budget the command theater had. In theory, having Cyber Command stand on its own would mean it secure more money and have greater autonomy over that money for their operations.

Cyber Command may also split away from the NSA because of this. Defense Secretary Mattis will study this possibility over the course of 60 days before officially releasing a statement on that.

The Good, The Bad, and the Worrying

Overall, I think that it is a good sign that the United States is not only recognizing Cyberspace as its own region, but finally taking our operations more seriously there. With well evidenced allegations that the United States’ Presidential Election had been compromised by foreign actors and the many cyber attacks carried out by China on the US, it is good that the US is working on bolstering its cyber defenses.

An issue arises though. Cyberspace feels a lot like it is in the ether, but it is well based in the physical realm. Servers, computers, and networks all have to be placed somewhere. While the United States does exercise its power with impunity almost anywhere, drawing the battle lines in cyberspace may be a bit more difficult. Servers move, attacks are masked, and sovereignty is fuzzy. A wrong move could spark previously unknown retaliation.

It also marks the beginning of an acceleration to a cyber-arms race. Many militaries in the world like to look at what the US is doing and either copy it or build up effective countermeasures against it.

The digital age necessitated this decision, it was inevitable. It will be interesting to follow how an independent Cyber Command will operate in the brave new world of clandestine digital operations.

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