3 Areas Cybersecurity Will Have Major Impact. (Part 2-Military)

As we continue contemplating the potential impacts of the increase in cyberattacks, we will now look at the military consequences. The U.S. military is continuing to grow its cyber capabilities. In 2018 U.S. Cyber command became a combatant command under the command of General Paul Nakasone. This elevation signaled the military understanding of cyberspace as a warfighting domain. The military has enhanced its ability to operate in a virtual world. There has been a shift to what many have given the name Great Power Competition between the U.S. and China, and cyberspace will play a pivotal role in this competition. Cyberspace has introduced new threats and is also causing the military to look at old threats in a new way. The U.S. military is working to create both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities to deter adversaries from attacks. Much like we have nuclear weapons as a deterrent against physical attacks, we need the same level of obstruction in cyberspace.

We have seen the Chinese and Russian governments conduct cyberattacks against U.S. government agencies, such as the Office of Personnel Management breach in 2015. The Chinese government was able to millions of sensitive personnel records and fingerprints of federal employees. We recently saw Russia conduct a supply chain attack through a security vendor's product to compromise the Departments of Defense, Treasury, and Homeland Security, among many other government agencies. The extent of the damage done by this attack may never be known but emphasizes the importance of cyberspace from a national security perspective. Cyberwarfare is now being considered an immediate danger (Doffman, 2019). The increasing integration between the cyber and physical domains is continuing to grow. As a result, the likelihood of kinetic warfare due to cyberattacks is increasing. For example, in 2019, the nation of Israel responded to a cyberattack with an airstrike against Hamas (Borghard, 2019). These incidents will continue to occur as more militaries worldwide implement cyber capabilities into their arsenals. Military cyber operations are very complex and will require planning beyond the conventional scope.?

Unlike the traditional battlefield, which is static, buildings and terrain do not move; the environment continually shifts in the cyber domain. Attackers can appear to be coming from one direction but, in actuality, are hundreds of miles on the opposite. This type of misdirection makes attributing attacks to specific adversaries extremely difficult. One such story involves the country of Iran. The U.S. government routinely tracks nation-state cyber activity. With Iran being a major actor in the space with advanced cyber capabilities. Those responsible for monitoring the activity noticed little to no action coming from Iran. This lack of activity aroused more suspicions. After conducting a more in-depth investigation of the attack activity, it was late discovered that the Iranians had compromised the Chinese and initiated attacks against the U.S. from Chinese Infrastructure. This type of activity in cyberspace can have unforeseen consequences. If, for example, an attack on the U.S. appears to come from Russia is being executed by the Chinese and the U.S. responded against Russia for the attack, it could lead to Kinetic warfare. Unlike a missile launch or attack by air or sea, cyberattack attribution is complicated. Governments must be mindful concerning the proportionality of any response to a cyberattack so that collateral damage to all parties is limited.

We have seen Russia conduct cyberattacks against Ukraine with malware now known as NotPetya. This malware wreaked havoc against organizations across the globe, although only intended to impact systems in Ukraine. This malware was able to use exploits stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency known as Eternal Blue. Ukraine could not conduct radiation monitoring at the Chernobyl nuclear plant; banking, airports, and railways were also offline. One of the unintended victims of this attack was the shipping company Maersk. This company had its entire global shipping operations shut down for weeks, and the company reported a loss of between 200-300 million. What was meant to be purely a military operation between nations became a global issue and what some have called the most devastating malware attack in history. There are no Geneva convention rules in place as it relates to conducting military operations in cyberspace. The awareness of the importance of protecting cyberspace as a strategic military advantage is continuing to grow. The Department of Defense (DOD) is continuously working to address the national security risk within cyberspace.

?The DOD is working with its partners in the defense industrial base to ensure the department's security of these companies' systems. With the connectivity level in networks today, malicious software can quickly be introduced almost anywhere and exploited. Nation-state actors, just like a criminal, will always look for the weakest point. Attacks against the military will routinely start those organizations supplying technology to the military. If they can compromise the supplier, they can then look for ways to move laterally and escalate privileges to access more sensitive data.??This type of compromise is likely what allowed the Chinese government to create an exact clone of the US F22 and F35 fighter jets (Staff, 2019).?The national security concerns are, without question, high. Currently, the DOD is implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) a new cybersecurity requirement for all DOD contractors. These organizations will now be required to achieve certain levels of cybersecurity preparedness to maintain their contracts. These actions will make it more difficult for nation-state attacks to steal national security secrets. The U.S. military and its allies continue to build new technology that will help lead to more timely detection of cyberattacks. However, opponents are increasing the sophistication and complexity of attacks. It is essential that the military and its partners innovate at the same speed or faster. Without defined norms and rules of engagement, we can expect to see more collateral damage from military cyber operations that could include the loss of life. Cyber power can potentially provide the same advantages to the military as airpower provided during the 20th century. There is a race to seize this advantage on all sides; however, the repercussion of achieving this advantage remains unclear. Governments around the globe must come together to develop solutions for conducting cyber operations against each other to minimize unwanted repercussions.