David A. Andelman, visiting scholar at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, wrote an op-ed for Erie News Now about potential cybersecurity threats to the United States.
The American military is recognizing that the cyber battlefield can be every bit as lethal as the traditional one. It can target systems from nuclear power plants to emergency responders — certainly, a threat to our way of life — as any device manufactured to kill soldiers, sailors, or marines, can bring down planes or sink ships. The question is whether we are doing enough, quickly enough, to counter the threat.
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The Defense Department budget devoted to cyber operations has grown 83% from 2014 through 2019, an annual rate of 12.8% a year, Dennis Murphy, senior research analyst for Jane’s IHS Markit, told me in a phone interview. A Defense Department spokesman told me that this year, the first since sequestered spending has ended, US cyber defenses are budgeted at $8 billion. Jane’s also estimates that the cyber mission force will hit 6,200 by the end of September, up more than 1,000 in the past year. But this must be only a beginning. After all, there are some 1.3 million active duty American military troops.
The US continues to recognize the multiplicity of potential cyber threats. It must not waver in this commitment. After all, a deft terrorist with a high-end laptop and the sensibilities of a determined hacker can wreak equal or greater havoc as one with a bomb.