In an article looking at cybersecurity, The Financial Times notes
that in 2009 "US Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared cyberspace to
be the 'fifth domain' of military operations, alongside land, sea, air
and space."
In 2010, General Keith Alexander "is the first boss of USCybercom, the
United States Cyber Command, in charge of the Pentagon's sprawling cyber
networks and tasked with battling unknown enemies in a virtual world."
In his confirmation hearing, the FT says, General Alexander sounded the
alarm, declaring that the Pentagon's computer systems "are probed
250,000 times an hour, up to six million per day", and that among those
attempting to break in were "more than 140 foreign spy organisations
trying to infiltrate US networks". Congress was left with a dark
prophecy ringing in its ears: "It's only a small step from disrupting to
destroying parts of the network."
This 3,500 word article also claims that "there are areas where American
control over the administration of the web is slipping. Under pressure
from foreign governments, notably China, Icann, the US-based independent
body that stipulates how the addresses of websites can be formulated,
announced that from now on it will allow the use of most major language
scripts - Cyrillic, Chinese and Arabic, among them."
"US defence hawks regard this as a disaster. Writing in the Harvard
Security Journal, Dan Geer, whose company has advised the CIA on
computer security, called it 'the single most criminogenic act ever
taken in or around the digital world'. He argues that it will be even
easier for cyber warriors to launch an attack while disguising their
location."
To read this article in The Financial Times in full, see:
www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3e52897c-d0ee-11df-a426-00144feabdc0.html
- Follow us on :
