Senators press Defense and intelligence officials on rules of war for cyberspace at Armed Forces Committee hearing

A week after President Barack Obama announced an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to limit corporate espionage -- a tentative step toward setting up norms of state behavior on the Internet -- a panel of Senators on Sept 29 urged cybersecurity officials in the Defense Department to go further in establishing clear rules of war for cyberattacks.

As members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee pushed for a more clearly delineated cyber policy -- and better follow-through to make US intentions clear -- the committee's Chairman, Sen John McCain (R-AZ), suggested the lack of such policy is illegal. In a heated exchange, Chairman McCain pressed Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on his department's progress in developing an "integrated policy" for cybersecurity, a task Congress assigned the department in the fiscal year 2014 Defense reauthorization bill. Chairman McCain said, "We have not got a policy, and for you to sit there and tell me that you do -- a 'broad-strokes strategy' -- frankly is not in compliance with the law."