U.S. Officials Opening Up on #Cyberwarfare - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/us/us-officials-opening-up-on-cyberwarfare.html?pagewanted=all
Next month the Pentagon’s research arm will host contractors who want to propose “revolutionary technologies for understanding, planning and managing cyberwarfare.” It is an ambitious program that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, calls Plan X, and the public description talks about “understanding the cyber battlespace,” quantifying “battle damage” and working in Darpa’s “cyberwar laboratory.”
James A. Lewis, who studies cybersecurity at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says he sees the Plan X public announcement as “a turning point” in a long debate over secrecy about cyberwarfare. He said it was timely, given that public documents suggest that at least 12 of the world’s 15 largest militaries are building cyberwarfare programs.
“I see Plan X as operationalizing and routinizing cyberattack capabilities,” Mr. Lewis said. “If we talk openly about offensive nuclear capabilities and every other kind, why not cyber?”
la #cyberguerre devient de plus en plus officiellement offensive
#etats-unis
Cyberwarfare was discussed quite openly in the 1990s, though technological capabilities and targets were far more limited than they are today, said Jason Healey, who heads the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
“Our current silence dates back 8 or 10 years, and N.S.A. is a big reason,” said Mr. Healey, who is working on a history of cyberwarfare.
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et il faut bosser le #storytelling :
Because both the Bush and Obama administrations were slow to speak publicly about their use of armed #drones, Mr. Waxman said, “they ceded a lot of ground to critics to shape the narrative and portray U.S. practices as lawless.” As a result, he said, “the U.S. is trying to play catch-up, giving speech after speech, saying ‘We abide by the law.’ ”
Now, Mr. Waxman said, because the United States “occupies a position of advantage on offensive cyber capabilities, it should seize the opportunity to lay out a set of rules for itself and others.”