Collateral Damage

blackoutThere was lots of good discussion last time about cyber warfare, cyber security, and U.S. policy, but what most respondents seemed to miss was the international nature of the IT business — all the outsourcing and offshoring that we were told was so great — and its implications for U.S. security.  The upshot is that any U.S. cyber warfare czar will have to effectively function as a WORLD cyber warfare czar, a fact that neither Republican nor Democratic Administrations have yet been willing to embrace, at least in public.

Forget for the moment about data incursions within the DC beltway, what happens when  Pakistan takes down the Internet in India?  Here we have technologically sophisticated regional […]

Remember Billy Mitchell

generalbillymitchellBilly Mitchell was an iconoclastic American military airman from the early 20th century.  He was a firm believer in military air power and was ordered court-martialed in 1925 by President Calvin Coolidge for criticizing his military superiors over the issue.  My kind of guy. Gary Cooper played Mitchell in a 1955 movie, by which time everyone knew he had been right all along.  My fear is that when it comes to cyber warfare there is no Billy Mitchell today in Washington.

Cyber warfare was big news last week.  President Obama said he would name a cyber warfare czar to be a single point of contact on the issue for his Administration and that person would have […]