Olympic Games are Just the Beginning for Cyberwarfare

[Commentary] On June 1, the New York Times reported on President Obama’s decision to accelerate cyberattacks begun by the Bush administration, attacks aimed at slowing the progress of Iran’s efforts to develop the ability to build nuclear weapons. The United States government only recently acknowledged developing cyberweapons, and it has never admitted using them. There have been reports of one-time attacks against personal computers used by members of Al Qaeda, and of contemplated attacks against the computers that run air defense systems, including during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led air attack on Libya last year. But this effort, code named Olympic Games, was of an entirely different type and sophistication. It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country’s infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives.