[Infowarrior] - Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace

[Richard Forno]

May 29, 2009
Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29cyber.html?pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for  
cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up  
preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and  
defensive computer warfare.

The military command would complement a civilian effort to be  
announced by President Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the  
United States safeguards its computer networks.

Mr. Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House  
office — reporting to both the National Security Council and the  
National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multibillion dollar  
effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems  
that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and  
manage the air traffic control system.

White House officials say Mr. Obama has not yet been formally  
presented with the Pentagon plan. They said he would not discuss it  
Friday when he announces the creation of a White House office  
responsible for coordinating private-sector and government defenses  
against the thousands of cyberattacks mounted against the United  
States — largely by hackers but sometimes by foreign governments —  
every day.

But he is expected to sign a classified order in coming weeks that  
will create the military cybercommand, officials said. It is a  
recognition that the United States already has a growing number of  
computer weapons in its arsenal and must prepare strategies for their  
use — as a deterrent or alongside conventional weapons — in a wide  
variety of possible future conflicts.

The White House office will be run by a “cyberczar,” but because the  
position will not have direct access to the president, some experts  
said it was not high-level enough to end a series of bureaucratic wars  
that have broken out as billions of dollars have suddenly been  
allocated to protect against the computer threats.

The main dispute has been over whether the Pentagon or the National  
Security Agency should take the lead in preparing for and fighting  
cyberbattles. Under one proposal still being debated, parts of the  
N.S.A. would be integrated into the military command so they could  
operate jointly.

Officials said that in addition to the unclassified strategy paper to  
be released by Mr. Obama on Friday, a classified set of presidential  
directives is expected to lay out the military’s new responsibilities  
and how it coordinates its mission with that of the N.S.A., where most  
of the expertise on digital warfare resides today.

The decision to create a cybercommand is a major step beyond the  
actions taken by the Bush administration, which authorized several  
computer-based attacks but never resolved the question of how the  
government would prepare for a new era of warfare fought over digital  
networks.

It is still unclear whether the military’s new command or the N.S.A. —  
or both — will actually conduct this new kind of offensive cyber  
operations.

The White House has never said whether Mr. Obama embraces the idea  
that the United States should use cyberweapons and the public  
announcement on Friday is expected to focus solely on defensive steps  
and the government’s acknowledgement that it needs to be better  
organized to face the threat from foes attacking military, government  
and commercial online systems.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has pushed for the Pentagon to  
become better organized to address the security threat.

Initially at least, the new command would focus on organizing the  
various components and capabilities now scattered across the four  
armed services.

Officials declined to describe potential offensive operations, but  
said they now viewed cyberspace as comparable to more traditional  
battlefields.

“We are not comfortable discussing the question of offensive cyber  
operations, but we consider cyberspace a war-fighting domain,“ said  
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. “We need to be able to operate  
within that domain just like on any battlefield, which includes  
protecting our freedom of movement and preserving our capability to  
perform in that environment.

Although Pentagon civilian officials and military officers said the  
new command was expected to initially be a subordinate headquarters  
under the military’s Strategic Command, which controls nuclear  
operations as well as cyberdefenses, it could eventually become an  
independent command.

“No decision has been made,” said Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a  
Pentagon spokesman. “Just as the White House has completed its 60-day  
review of cyberspace policy, likewise, we are looking at how the  
department can best organize itself to fill our role in implementing  
the administration’s cyberpolicy.”

The creation of the cyberczar’s office inside the White House appears  
to be part of a significant expansion of the role of the national  
security apparatus there. A separate group overseeing domestic  
security, created by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11  
attacks, now resides within the National Security Council. A senior  
White House official responsible for countering the proliferation of  
nuclear and unconventional weapons has been given broader authority.  
Now, cybersecurity will also rank as one of the key threats that Mr.  
Obama is seeking to coordinate from the White House.

The strategy review Mr. Obama will discuss on Friday was completed  
weeks ago, but delayed because of continuing arguments over the  
authority of the White House office, and the budgets for the entire  
effort.

It was kept separate from the military debate over whether the  
Pentagon or the N.S.A. is best equipped to engage in offensive  
operations. Part of that debate hinges on the question of how much  
control should be given to American spy agencies, since they are  
prohibited from acting on American soil.

“It’s the domestic spying problem writ large,” one senior intelligence  
official said recently. “These attacks start in other countries, but  
they know no borders. So how do you fight them if you can’t act both  
inside and outside the United States?”

John Markoff contributed reporting.