14.Over 100 intelligence services conducting cyber warfare on U.S.

Over 100 intelligence services conducting cyber warfare on U.S.

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn told a conference in Brussels that the danger of cyber attacks is growing and was highlighted by the 2008 cyber penetration of U.S. classified military networks by a foreign spy agency he did not identify.“It was any network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently on your system, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary,” Lynn said of the cyber attack which some reports have identified as launched by Russian intelligence. “The cyber threat is here now, and both the U.S. and NATO need to confront it.”
More than 100 foreign intelligence services are engaged in cyber warfare efforts posing a key vulnerability to U.S. military power, he said last week.

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, right, met in April with Facebook employees, at which time he discussed the importance of social media within the Defense Department. AP/Luis Alvarez

Lynn, speaking Sept. 15, then noted that the use of cyber warfare is an asymmetric technology that allows foreign powers to avoid building expensive and complex weapons like stealth bombers or aircraft carriers to threaten U.S. military capabilities.
“Knowing this, many militaries are developing offensive cyber capabilities, and more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are trying to break into U.S. systems,” he said. “Some governments already have the capacity to disrupt elements of the U.S. information infrastructure.”
Lynn said NATO states are among the world’s leading producers and consumers of information technology that powers their economies and “enables almost everything our militaries do.”
“But our very reliance on information technology also poses a threat. It furnishes an obvious route for adversaries to attack us. Cyber is therefore a source of significant potential vulnerability,” he said.
Cyber attacks also are very difficult to track, thus making them difficult to deter with either kinetic or digital weapons.
“Without establishing the identity of the attacker in near real time, our paradigm of deterrence breaks down,” Lynn said.
Lynn noted that adversaries are targeting U.S. intellectual property, such as China’s attack on Google earlier this year as part of what he called “a sophisticated cyber intrusion that also targeted dozens of other companies.”