Chapter 8 Cyber security (Week 9)

8.1 Discussion questions

  • Lindsay (2013): What have you learned from the reading? Is the lesson still relevant today?

  • Barrinha and Renard (2020): What is the main argument? Should the US focus on creating and maintaining cyberspace order or not? Why?

Could Russia’s war on Ukraine escalate into a global cyberwar?

8.2 Lindsay (2013)

  • “Cyber warfare … employs computer network attacks as a use of force to disrupt an opponent’s physical infrastructure for political gain.”

  • Wreck critical industrial control systems (ICS) \(\rightarrow\) “strategic bombing” (substitute rather than complement)

  • Cyber revolution

      1. “cyberwarfare is asymmetric”
      1. “the offense has the upper hand”
      1. “deterrence models of assured retaliation do not apply to cyberspace, where it is difficult and time consuming to identify an attack’s perpetrator.”

8.3 Barrinha and Renard (2020)

  • Cyber diplomacy: “the use of diplomatic resources and the performance of diplomatic functions to secure national interests with regard to the cyberspace.”

  • Post-liberal challenge

    • Power and US leadership
    • Liberal values
    • Mutilateral institutions

  • The world as a chessboard and the world as a web

    • Power: nonstate actors
    • Values: cyber security vs. internet freedom
    • Institutions: state-centric trend

  • Cyber diplomacy

    • Communication
    • Conflict prevention or mitigation
    • Norms and standards
    • Order

8.4 Obama 2011

“The digital world is no longer a lawless frontier, nor the province of a small elite. It is a place where the norms of responsible, just, and peaceful conduct among states and peoples have begun to take hold. It is one of the finest examples of a community self-organizing, as civil society, academia, the private sector, and governments work together democratically to ensure its effective management. Most important of all, this space continues to grow, develop, and promote prosperity, security, and openness as it has since its invention. This is what sets the Internet apart in the international environment, and why it is so important to protect.”

8.5 Trump

  • DoD; Cyber command; DHS; Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in 2018

  • Defend forward; persistent engagement

  • DoD cyber strategy

    • “We will defend forward to disrupt or halt malicious cyber activity at its source, including activity that falls below the level of armed conflict.”

  • Cyber command 2018 vision

    • “persistent engagement” to counter rivals who “operate continuously below the threshold of armed conflict to weaken institutions and gain strategic advantages.”

8.6 Trump 2018

  • Defend the homeland by protecting networks, systems, functions, and data;
  • Promote American prosperity by nurturing a secure, thriving digital economy and fostering strong domestic innovation;
  • Preserve peace and security by strengthening the ability of the United States — in concert with allies and partners — to deter and, if necessary, punish those who use cyber tools for malicious purposes; and
  • Expand American influence abroad to extend the key tenets of an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet