Protecting the U.S. From Cyberattacks
THE BEST (CYBER) DEFENSE IS A GOOD (CYBER) OFFENSE
by Jamil N. Jaffer
WE ARE AT WAR IN CYBERSPACE. While lawyers might quibble about the definitions of armed attacks, the fact of the matter is that, for around a decade, we’ve been in a series of consistent—albeit small-scale—conflicts in cyberspace. They have intensified recently, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have had a massive impact on the American public and private sectors. Standing alone, cyber-enabled economic warfare conducted by China drains the American private sector of billions of dollars a year, with total damages estimated in the trillions. Former NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander described this concerted effort as “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history.”
Even worse, in the last six years alone, we’ve seen our adversaries undertake attacks tantamount to acts of war. For example, we’ve seen North Korea and Iran engage in the affirmative destruction of data and the bricking of computer systems here in the United States. And the threat level continues to grow. Just last year, then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress that Iran is
