SCHOOL THESIS

ABSTRACT
For more than fifty years, North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD) has been responsible for conducting aerospace warning and control missions
for the defense of North America. In accomplishing those operations, Commander
NORAD is responsible for making the official warning to both the president of the
United States and the prime minister of Canada if North America is suddenly under
aerospace attack.
Now, with the dramatic increase in worldwide cyberspace events, NORAD has
begun examining its own potential role within this new domain. Would involving
NORAD in the military cyber attack warning process, leveraging its unique and proven
binational structure, provide any advantages to both nations?
To analyze this question, this thesis briefly traces NORAD’s warning mission
history, discusses the basic concepts involved with “cyber attacks,” identifies key U.S.
and Canadian military cyber organizations, and examines significant U.S. and Canadian
cyberspace government policies. It then proposes three potential new courses of action
for NORAD, identifying advantages, disadvantages, and proposed solutions to
implementation.
The thesis ends by recommending NORAD advocate for unrestricted cyberspace
national event conference participation. This would be a realistic, achievable first step
offering significant improvement in both NORAD’s cyber attack situational awareness,
as well as improving overall operational responsiveness.
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