On the Use of Offensive Cyber Capabilities - Belfer Center for ...

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Operational ConsiderationsStrategicAny military operation must support the overall strategic vision. Whilethis statement may seem banal in the context of modern hostilities, it assumes adifferent significance in the realm of cyber activity. Most of the external cyberactivity occurring today that concerns the United States does not occur inconjunction with physical warfare. Rather it is between rival nations who enjoynormalized, relatively peaceful relations. 47 For this reason, there are two differentstrategic dimensions to external cyber activity.First, consider national strategy. The Obama Administration’s 2010National Security Strategy emphasizes four “enduring national interests”:security, prosperity, values and international order. 48 Policy for external cyberactivity needs to support these principles without undermining any one of them.For instance, employing a cyber counterattack that seeks to promote our securityand prosperity, but which destabilizes the international order, would be astrategic miscalculation. This is a significant consideration for U.S. cyber policytoward advanced persistent threats (APT). With regard to the Libyan exampleabove, the New York Times reported that NATO’s decision to refrain from usingcyber weaponry was partially a function of the danger of setting a precedent.This decision demonstrates the importance of supporting national strategy inelecting to use external cyber operations. 4947 For example, See (McConnell, Chertoff, & Lynn, China's Cyber Theivery is National Policy -And Must Be Challenged, 2012)48 (The White House, 2010)49 It is also a fitting example of the interaction between strategy and economics. Though economicconsiderations may end up justifying the acceptance of strategic risk, policy makers evidentlydecided to bias toward supporting strategic imperatives.33
There is also an interaction between national strategy and theater strategy.DoD defines theater strategy is “an overarching construct outlining a combatantcommander’s vision for integrating and synchronizing military activities andoperations with the other instruments of national power in order to achievenational strategic objectives.” 50 Cyber operations conducted in support of atheater strategy have greater potential for impacts affecting U.S. national strategyand accordingly require additional national oversight.ExecutionalPolicy-makers must account for various operational considerations. First,in conventional warfare, the mere existence of a weapon, weapon system, unit,etc. is in itself the presence of a capability. While the U.S. may not acknowledgethe existence of some weapons, the capability still exists and they are available tocommanders or policy makers for promoting national security. And, use of aconventional weapon (classified or otherwise) generally does not limit potentialfuture use.Such is not the case for cyber capabilities. All external cyber operations arepredicated on system vulnerabilities. 51 To conduct a cyber operation anorganization must first identify a vulnerability, and then develop and test anexploit to achieve the desired effects—creating a cyber capability. Use of a cybercapability inherently risks disclosing the existence of the exploited vulnerability,thereby allowing the adversary, and potential future adversaries, to correct theunderlying vulnerability. Essentially, once a cyber capability is used, it ispossible that the operational capability may quickly vanish as vulnerabilities areremediated.50 (U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2012)51 (Lin, 2010)34
Page 1 and 2: On the Use of OffensiveCyber Capabi
Page 3 and 4: Table of ContentsAcknowledgements .
Page 5 and 6: Executive SummaryThe defining chara
Page 7 and 8: FrameworkAssessing the implications
Page 9 and 10: I. IntroductionThough conflict inev
Page 11 and 12: Unfortunately, we believe that ther
Page 13 and 14: To the maximum extent possible we u
Page 15 and 16: these cyberspace operations “comp
Page 17 and 18: Principles Driving the Ontological
Page 19 and 20: Cyber activity can have both logica
Page 21 and 22: cyberspace and complicates sound na
Page 23 and 24: cyber action, but we do find them t
Page 25 and 26: Cyber Pre-emption: External cyber o
Page 27 and 28: threatening external action or enta
Page 29 and 30: Figure 5: Framework for Cyber Polic
Page 31 and 32: effects of external cyber operation
Page 33: International LawInternational cons
Page 37 and 38: TemporalCommanders desire the abili
Page 39 and 40: InternationalMultilateral action is
Page 41 and 42: Potential changes to the “laws of
Page 43 and 44: Scanning:IV. Cyber Actions with Min
Page 45 and 46: The 4 th Amendment protects against
Page 47 and 48: operational intelligence collection
Page 49 and 50: security vulnerabilities are identi
Page 51 and 52: 1) Establish an interagency underst
Page 53 and 54: individual’s agency must be justi
Page 55 and 56: Finally section (f) exempts only la
Page 57 and 58: argue it is not intended to limits
Page 59 and 60: intrusion methods are required to e
Page 61 and 62: SystemicDespite the first order eff
Page 63 and 64: is possible. The capabilities used
Page 65 and 66: d. Section (f) should be expanded t
Page 67 and 68: indicates a will to keep the inform
Page 69 and 70: protections for privacy. However, t
Page 71 and 72: information on U.S. persons collect
Page 73 and 74: Example ScenarioThe following scena
Page 75 and 76: the awkward position: if it is unkn
Page 77 and 78: less severe than attack are largely
Page 79 and 80: treaties. This second set of duties
Page 81 and 82: persons. Beyond the limitations pla
Page 83 and 84: instead of force, when cyber attack
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collection effort to generate all t
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and incentivize technology companie
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operational capabilities for employ
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2) To ensure the operational capabi
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and are entirely permissible ethica
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equires an external component. The
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any one branch’s overreach. (We h
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particularly from limiting espionag
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more destructive/disruptive. Though
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to reach an interagency understandi
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counterattacks to serve as a deterr
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however, may require a significant
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There is a possibility of a backlas
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2) The foreign external cyber opera
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For the purpose of this work, a pre
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Although the ethical considerations
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ight to “life, liberty and securi
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would be hard to overstate. 131 Thi
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ConsequentialDomesticAs mentioned i
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extent to which the executive branc
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public as new U.S. military technol
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IC believes that the HVT is using 3
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Policy Recommendations1) Use of cyb
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identified by our ontology, spannin
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Appendix 1: Summary of Recommendati
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c. Amended (a)(2) (a), (b), and (c)
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gained) and necessity (only the min
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2) If overt, cyber force should be
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Cyber Intrusion: Unauthorized acces
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BibliographyAllison, G. T., & Black
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Etzioni, A. (2011). Cybersecurity i
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Jacobellis v. Ohio, 11 (United Stat
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Nye, Jr., J. S. (2004). Soft Power.
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United Nations. (1948, December 10)
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