The U.S. has a brilliant military cyber force. This is the field on which future wars should be fought. Certainly, Russia has sneaked into America via the internet to shape the public’s political opinions and manipulate an internet win for Donald Trump in 2016. It will try again in 2020. Yet, this is not the only actor on the scene. China and Iran are powerful enemies. He or she who has the most powerful technology rules the world. This was how America struck back.
First though, Americans should not worry too much about the Iranian and North Korean nuclear capabilities. These countries use a computerized infrastructure to run these facilities. All the U.S. has to do is continue to maintain the world’s technology lead and take the enemy’s nuclear infrastructure down. Then, we must use our skills to protect our own infrastructure and interact personally with these countries to achieve international cooperation.
Last week after Iran took down an 100 million dollar drone, the United States military cyber forces struck Iran’s military computer systems. According to The Associated Press (AP), Donald Trump condoned the strikes.
America did the following according to AP’s military sources:
‘…disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers, the officials said. The attacks, which specifically targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps computer system, were provided as options after Iranian forces blew up two oil tankers earlier this month.’
Director of Intelligence Analysis at FireEye John Hultquist said:
‘Both sides are desperate to know what the other side is thinking. You can absolutely expect the regime to be leveraging every tool they have available to reduce the uncertainty about what’s going to happen next, about what the U.S.’s next move will be.’
Christopher Krebs, cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, told the AP that “the agency has been working with the intelligence community and cybersecurity partners to monitor Iranian cyber activity and ensure U.S. and its allies are safe:”
‘What might start as an account compromise, where you think you might just lose data, can quickly become a situation where you’ve lost your whole network.’
The National Security Agency released a statement to the AP that read:
‘There have been serious issues with malicious Iranian cyber actions in the past. In these times of heightened tensions, it is appropriate for everyone to be alert to signs of Iranian aggression in cyberspace and ensure appropriate defenses are in place.’
Vice President of Threat Intelligence at Dragos, Inc. Sergio Caltagirone said:
‘This is not a remote war (anymore). This is one where Iranians could quote unquote bring the war home to the United States.’
Pentagon spokesperson Heather Babb released a statement that read:
“As a matter of policy and for operational security, we do not discuss cyberspace operations, intelligence or planning. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.’
Former National Security Agency analyst Oren Falkowitz said:
‘It’s important to remember that cyber is not some magic offensive nuke you can fly over and drop one day. Cyber impact is going to be one of the tools they use and one of the hardest things to defend against.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
