[Infowarrior] - Pentagon Plan: 'Eliminate' Space, Cyberspace Threats

[Richard Forno]

Pentagon Plan: 'Eliminate' Space, Cyberspace Threats
By Noah Shachtman EmailMay 21, 2008 | 2:41:00 PMCategories: Info War,  
Space

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/develop-and-emp.html

Spcinvad The Pentagon's spies are looking to "eliminate" opponents'  
abilities to strike from space, or online.  A new plan from the  
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, retired Gen. James  
Clapper, warns that the "current patchwork of passive defense" in  
cyberspace "is likely to fail in the face of greater vulnerabilities  
and more sophisticated threats. Defense intelligence must do its part  
to defeat this critical threat."

In recent months, military officials have been issuing shrill warnings  
about attacks from space and cyberspace -- and darkly promising  
massive and devastating retribution, if the United States is struck. A  
recently-luanched Air Force program is searching for "full control" of  
"any and all" computers. "Every potential adversary, from nation  
states to rogue individuals... should be compelled to consider... an  
attack on U.S. systems resulting in highly undesireable consequences  
to their own security," a recent Defense Department report notes.

This latest document, entitled "Defense Intelligence Strategy" and  
highlighted by Secrecy News and BeSpacific, echoes some of that  
rhetoric.  It states as its fourth "strategic objective":

     Eliminate any advantage held by our adversaries to operate from  
and within the space and cyber domains. The anticipated increase in  
global military and commercial space and cyber activities ensures that  
the focus of defense intelligence professionals employed in these  
domains will grow exponentially. The potential for the deployment of  
weapons by near-peer competitors and increasing dependence on space- 
based assets for military and civilian technologies makes these  
domains increasingly important. As stated in the U.S. National Space  
Policy, the focus of defense intelligence in space will be to ensure  
full situational awareness for military and civilian decision-makers,  
support military planning initiatives, and satisfy operational  
requirements. As addressed within the Comprehensive National  
Cybersecurity Initiative, cyberspace has become a vital national  
interest economically, militarily and culturally, and the current  
patchwork of passive defense is likely to fail in the face of greater  
vulnerabilities and more sophisticated threats. Defense intelligence  
must do its part to defeat this critical threat.

Not only does that mean building better "space situational awareness"  
for spotting those threats, the document says. It means "protect[ing]  
cyberspace systems with both defensive and offensive countermeasures,"  
too.