A top-secret presidential memo published Friday marked the latest sign that the Obama administration is ready to go on the offensive in a potential cyberwar.
On Friday, the Guardian
published a secret presidential directive
calling on national security and intelligence officials to create a
list of potential foreign targets for U.S. cyber attacks. The 18-page
document, known as Presidential Policy Directive 20, aims "to put in
place tools and a framework to enable government to make decisions" on
cyber actions,
a senior administration official told the Guardian.
The directive states
that cyber attacks can be launched as part of "anticipatory action
taken against imminent threats," but should comply with U.S. and
international law and receive approval from the president if they are
"reasonably likely to result in significant consequences," according to
the Guardian.
The memo is the latest sign that the Obama administration is laying
the groundwork to retaliate in a potential cyber conflict. Earlier this
year, Gen. Keith Alexander, who runs the Pentagon's Cyber Command,
told Congress
he is establishing "an offensive team" of 13 teams of experts to carry
out cyberattacks against foreign countries that target the United States
with destructive computer code.
President Barack Obama has directed the United States, along with
Israel, to launch a series of cyber attacks known as Stuxnet that
damaged Iran's nuclear program,
according to The New York Times.
Last year,
the Washington Post reported on Plan X,
a Pentagon effort to develop new technologies to launch cyber attacks,
including a plan to map the entirety of cyberspace and build a system
that can launch cyberweapons without human operators typing in the code.
But while the U.S. takes steps to build its offensive cyber muscle,
its digital defenses remain weak, officials say. Last month, the deputy
inspector for the Department of Homeland Security
told a Congressional committee
that the nation's critical infrastructure "are increasingly under
attack by a variety of malicious sources," and that a majority of the
companies in the energy sector had experienced cyber attacks.
