02.11.07
US: Cyber Attack Response Planning
What do you do if your country is attacked on multiple fronts simultaneously, from a foreign or domestic group, where it’s very difficult to pinpoint exactly where it is originating from? This is the question the US Government and the National Cyber Response Coordination Group (NCRCG) is asking itself as it currently develops an official game plan for response to a cyber attack. Options currently under consideration include everything from launching a counter cyber attack to locating and bombing (KABOOM bombing not Google bombing) the source of the attack. While there is currently no official plan in place, the US Government is clearly taking this threat very seriously. Last November the Air Force added a Cyber Command group whose responsibilities include missions fought in Cyberspace.
“The preferred route would be warning the source to shut down the attack before a military response. If the United States found itself under a major cyberattack aimed at undermining the nations critical information infrastructure, the Department of Defense is prepared, based on the authority of the president, to launch a cyber counterattack or an actual bombing of an attack source.”
While it never hurts to prepare for something like this, I wonder if in all this planning they are considering the fact that these type of attacks can occur within the US borders and could originate from the basement of some house in a suburban neighborhood. In such a case, is the plan still to MOAB everything?
