GovInfoSecurity interview with Martin Libicki of the RAND Corp.
Martin Libicki spends a lot of time studying and thinking about the intersection of national security and information technology as a senior management scientist at the think tank RAND Corp. And in a just-released report he authored, Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar, Libicki argues that strategic cyber warfare shouldn’t be a priority for America’s armed services.
The key word here is strategic. Cyber warfare, as a strategy, would unlikely cause the enemy to disarm as does conventional warfare. Zap an adversary’s PC, and it can be replaced for $300. Cyber assault the enemy, and the opponent more likely than not will figure out how to defend itself against similar, future attacks. Besides, who knows how well cyber works as a weapon? “One of the differences between cyber and other forms of warfare is that cyber is largely untested. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Libicki said in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com.