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Hacker in chief: Obama given right to launch ‘preemptive’ cyberattacks
US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)
A secret review has concluded that US President Obama has the
authority to launch a preemptive cyber attack on any country on the
basis that they are considered a ‘cyber threat’ – even if there is no
concrete evidence of this threat.
Editor’s note: in fact, the United States already conducts preemptive cyberattacks. The recent expansion of the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare forces just goes to show that this will only become more common in the coming years.
It may not be long before the US conducts crippling attacks on
foreign soil with little more than a mouse click, thereby sparing itself
the effort of sending its military oversees or declaring war.
The Obama administration is currently drawing up a set of rules about
how the US military can defend against or conduct cyberattacks, the New
York Times reports. The Obama administration is also allowing
intelligence agencies to declare potential threats. But even if these
threats are nothing more than a suspicion without evidence, the military
now has the authority to attack foreign nations, regardless of whether
or not the US is involved in a conflict with them.
This would not only spare the US from sending its own troops
overseas, but it would also allow the administration to make decisions
without the deliberation that usually occurs before sending Americans
into a conflict zone. And if the administration conducts an attack based
on false premises, it would be saved the embarrassment that occurred
when President George W. Bush sent thousands of US troops into a war
with Iraq that lasted nearly 9 years, based on the false premise that
Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was a security threat.
With no overseas deployments necessary to conduct a cyberattack, the
administration would have nothing to lose by anonymously targeting and
destroying infrastructure based on its own suspicions of a threat. The
administration’s new rules would also allow the military to operate
domestically, the thought of which has always made many people
uncomfortable. The White House in October signed a presidential policy directive that aims to “finalize
new rules of engagement that would guide commanders when and how the
military can go outside government networks to prevent a cyberattack
that could cause significant destruction or casualties.”
A senior administration official told the Times that the US has so
far kept its cyber capabilities restrained and that the new rules could
allow the administration to exercise its full potential.
“There are levels of cyberwarfare that are far more aggressive than anything that has been used or recommended to be done,” the official said.
The administration has already used computer worms to cripple other
countries’ infrastructure, including a series of attacks against Iran’s
nuclear power plants, one of which took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000
centrifuges of the Natanz plant. The attack was controlled from inside
the Pentagon, which now has a new Cyber Command and a growing budget
that would allow it to conduct more extensive cyberattacks.
The Pentagon’s foundation of such an office demonstrates the
administration’s preparation for cyberwarfare, in which both the US and
terrorists can strike each other by taking down power grids, financial
systems and communications networks. The Cyber Command office is
experiencing a growing budget, while the Department of Defense is
preparing for spending cuts and is slashing budgets for other Pentagon
departments, indicating the importance of its work to the
administration.
The rules have been in development for nearly two years, but they
were leaked to the Times at a convenient moment for the administration:
The New York Times, Bloomberg L.P., the Wall Street Journal and the
Washington Post all claim that their computers have been penetrated by
Chinese hackers and had been targeted for years. The computer security
company Mandiant also alleged that Chinese hackers had stolen contacts,
information and files from more than 30 US newspaper journalists and
executives, many of which had written about Chinese leaders and
political and legal issues in China.
But the Chinese Ministry of National Defense has denied that its
people had anything to do with the suspected attacks, stating that “Chinese laws prohibit any action including hacking that damages Internet security.” The ministry also expressed anger about the accusations, stating that “to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless.”
“We have seen over the last years an increase in not only the
hacking attempts on government institutions but also nongovernmental
ones,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Thursday, emphasizing that the Chinese “are not the only people who are hacking us.”
The administration has also recently announced that an unnamed
American power station was crippled for weeks by cyberattacks, without
releasing details about the location of the plant. With little proof
about the alleged cyberattacks and the suspected threats, the White
House now reserves the right to make major cyberwarfare decisions,
despite Congress’ long-standing disapproval.
“The [National Security Administration’s] cyber security
operations have been kept very, very secret, and because of that it has
been impossible for the public to react to them,” said Electronic Privacy Information Center attorney Arnie Stepanovich in November. “[That makes it] very difficult, we believe, for Congress to legislate in this area.”
The Obama administration has long pushed for Congress to pass the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which would grant the
government greater access to the Internet and cybersecurity information
from the private sector. US Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano, claims it
is necessary to prevent a “cyber 9/11” attack that would knock out
water, electricity and gas, causing destruction similar to that left
behind by Hurricane Sandy.
But privacy advocates have long expressed concern that this measure
would give the government access to Americans’ personal e-mails, online
chat conversations, and other personal information that only private
companies and servers might have access too, prompting Congress to
reject the measure.
Alongside privacy concerns, the Obama administration’s increasing
access to cybersecurity information and cyberwarfare capabilities
provides the president with an unknown amount of power to conduct
anonymous attacks on foreign infrastructure.
While using this technology to attack military objects, such as
anti-aircraft or missile defense radars in war zones, would not surprise
anyone, the US now also reserves the right to attack other countries
with which it has not declared war.
With the US ranking first in a 2012 study that drew up a “Cyber
Power Index”, other nations whose conduct conflicts with US wishes could
become more vulnerable than ever – especially since International Law
allows countries to defend themselves against foreign threats, and these
“threats” can now be concluded based on vague intelligence analysis of a
‘potential’ cyber attack.
Source: RT
More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2013/02/04/hacker-in-chief-obama-given-right-to-launch-preemptive-cyberattacks/#ixzz2K0WcfW9G
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