US Must Focus on Protecting Critical Computer Networks from Cyber-Attack

Because it will be difficult to prevent cyber-attacks on critical civilian and military computer networks by threatening to punish attackers, the United States must focus its efforts on defending these networks from cyber-attack, according to a new RAND Corp. study. The study finds that the United States and other nations that rely on externally accessible computer networks -- such as ones used for electric power, telephone service, banking, and military command and control -- as a foundation for their military and economic power are subject to cyber-attack. "Adversaries in future wars are likely to go after each other's information systems using computer hacking," said Martin C. Libicki, the report's lead author and senior management scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "The lessons from traditional warfare cannot be adapted to apply to attacks on computer networks. Cyber-space must be addressed in its own terms."