WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Cyber espionage constitutes a significant threat to U.S. national security. Not only are such tactics being used to advance the interests of private corporations as they work to compete in the global market, but states also have employed this tool to both monitor the capabilities of adversaries and steal valuable, top-secret and proprietary information.
Everything from the Pentagon's most sensitive plans to invaluable intellectual property is at risk. Many U.S. officials have identified China as the main culprit in this effort, citing numerous major attacks against the Department of Defense and defense contractors that originated from the Chinese mainland. This phenomenon has been documented by Josh Rogin in his article "Cyber Officials: Chinese Hackers Attack 'Anything and Everything,'" FCW.com, Feb. 13, 2007, at http://www.grc.com/sn/files/FCW_on_%20Cyber_Warefare.pdf.
Finally, international legal mechanisms that govern cyber activity remain wanting. This is due, in part, to the decentralized nature of cyber attacks. During the Estonia attacks, for instance, although the perpetrator was believed to be the Russian government, and many computers that assisted in the attack were located in Russia, computers all over the world were used to launch the attack. Any direct evidence linking the attacks to Russia was thus highly circumstantial. During the crisis, questions lingered regarding what magnitude of cyber attack or evidence of perpetrators was necessary to invoke an Article V response under the auspices of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Additionally, questions were asked regarding what constituted an appropriate response from Estonia and other NATO members. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer largely summarized the prevailing answers to these questions when he stated that "no member state is protected from cyber attacks." This controversy was reported by Tony Halpin in his article "Putin Accused of Launching Cyber War," May 18, 2007, Times Online, at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1805636.ece.
Efforts to construct a framework to help guide the activities of varying actors in cyberspace remain essential.
It is vital for U.S. policymakers to think strategically. There are many "first order" questions that deserve serious thought as the U.S. government considers the next steps in keeping the "cyber commons" open to the free flow of services and ideas while thwarting the activities of malicious actors.
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(Part 7: Finding new ways to apply the "rule of law" to the lawless chaos of the Internet)
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(James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is assistant director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and senior research fellow for national security and homeland security in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Davis Institute, at the Heritage Foundation. Eric Sayers is a research assistant in the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.)
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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
