16 April 2010

CyberWar Already Ongoing

Military computers are being attacked every day.

Computer networks essential to the Pentagon and military are attacked by individual hackers, criminal groups and nations hundreds of thousands of times every day, according to the officer nominated to lead a cyberwarfare command.

The officer, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, said Thursday that one crucial reason that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates created a Cyber Command was “the amount of attacks that we’re seeing coming into the Defense Department gateways every day.”

Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the new command “warrants careful scrutiny,” because “capabilities to operate in cyberspace have outpaced the development of policy, law and precedent.”

“This policy gap is especially concerning,” he said, “because cyberweapons and cyberattacks potentially can be devastating, approaching weapons of mass destruction in their effects.”


By: Brant

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