November 30, 2007

Cyber Warfare Becomes a Serious Threat

By Congressman Joe Pitts

Imagine you are on a website operated by your federal government trying to find information about how to keep your identity safe when suddenly the page crashes.  You attempt to log back on to the page and there is suddenly propaganda from a neighboring country on your government’s website.  You can’t believe your eyes.  A recent diplomatic spat over a statue has turned into cyber warfare.  You try other government websites and even the site of your private bank.  They have all been altered or are simply shut down.

This may seem like a scenario from a spy drama, but it is not.  A situation much like this took place in April in the small Baltic republic of Estonia.  Estonia, a former Soviet Republic, had moved a Soviet war monument from the center of the capital city of Tallinn to a military cemetery.  The move was called “blasphemy” by the Russian government and sparked riots and even the blockading of the Estonian embassy in Russia by youth activists. 

Then the internet warfare began.  For weeks, Estonian websites, both private and public, were hit with enough bogus requests that the sites crashed.  Other official Estonian government sites were hacked and filled with Russian propaganda.  The small Baltic state was overwhelmed and had to shut down all outside access to its sites.  This included business and tourism sites and posed a serious hardship to the nation.  Estonian officials claim some of the early attacks can be traced to computers operated by the Russian government, while others were the work of private citizens.

Cyber warfare is an increasing reality in our globalized and digitized world.  And it is an issue that we must take seriously in the United States because the stakes are high, and the consequences can be severe. 

In June, the Financial Times reported that the People’s Liberation Army in China hacked into a Pentagon computer system that controlled the computers in the office of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.  Pentagon officials believe any information that was stolen was likely unclassified, but the network had to be taken down for more than a week to investigate. 

In September, the Guardian newspaper in London reported that Chinese hackers attacked the computer network of British Parliament and the Foreign Office.  China vigorously denies the accusations.  However, there have been reports that the Chinese military has taken up cyber warfare as a potential first strike against an enemy’s networks. 

The Estonian case showed that cyber warfare has the potential to make real disturbances to government services and even the functioning of private commerce.  However, cyber warfare has the potential to be far more serious than that.  As our armed forces make ever increasing advances in electronic warfare, more and more of the operations of our weapons systems are based on computer systems.

In testimony before Congress in March, Gen. James E. Cartwright said, “America is under widespread attack in cyberspace.  Our freedom to use cyberspace is threatened by the actions of criminals, terrorists and nations alike.” 

And while our ability to operate missile defense systems in the Taiwan Straits and insurgent reconnaissance in Iraq is under attack from cyber warfare, so is our electronic infrastructure at home.  Everything in our public sphere from the most essential elements like water and sewage systems and traffic lights, to banking systems are operated by computer networks and vulnerable to attack.  

While the U.S. military has paid increasing attention to the issue, it has little if any following on Capitol Hill.  I believe the recent events mentioned above should serve as a wakeup call to Members of Congress.  We live in a world that can no longer be secured with guns and missiles.  Our ability to physically defend the United States and our allies is inseparable from our ability to defend the integrity of our cyber networks.

I served three tours of combat duty in Vietnam as a navigator and electronic warfare (EW) officer on board B-52 Bombers.  Cyber warfare is quickly becoming one of the more important aspects of electronic warfare.  Because of my belief that America cannot maintain its military edge in the new millennium unless it continues to control the electromagnetic spectrum in wartime, I founded and co-chair the electronic warfare working group in Congress.  The EW working group seeks to bring attention to issues such as cyber warfare among Members of Congress.   

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