For this week’s post I will be responding to the article, “Critical Infrastructure Protection: Requirements for the 21st Century.” Published in 2015, this predicts and addresses the problems with the ever growing dependence on technology the United States and the world has.
The critical infrastructure consists of both physical and virtual systems that apply to a wide array of sectors for the United States. Certain sectors are crucial to our national security such as energy, transportation, communication, water, financial, and transportation. Any threat to these sectors can have a drastic effect on the American way of life. An attack on these would be a strategic and complex move by any adversary and has become common in the 21st century.
One of the most famous attacks in the 21st century was Stuxnet. This was a computer worm from 2010 that targeted the nuclear program in Iran. It was believed to be created by the United States and Israeli intelligence services who shares a common fear of Iran and their pursuit of nuclear armament. It was designed to destroy the centrifuges that are integral for the processing of uranium. It was estimated that Stuxnet set the program back by two years.
If we can do this to someone, it can be done to us. I believe this will be the future of passive aggressive warfare. If countries can successfully execute anonymous cyber attacks on infrastructure, trust among nations will suffer. It is crucial for the United States to lead the world in cyber defense so Stuxnet or worse does not happen to us.
One reply on “Consalvo – Class 12”
Justin,
In today’s connect world, with everything and everyone inter-connected via the Internet, the vulnerability of our critical infrastructure has increased enormously, as you point out. In the (near) future, it may no longer be necessary for adversaries to fight kinetic wars where soldiers and civilians die; rather we may fight virtually. And attacking key infrastructure nodes, such as electric grids, water supplies, dams, etc., would be a central feature of this approach. That said, I do not find it convincing that, despite the damage and inconvenience that would be caused by a major cyberattack on infrastructure, it would be sufficient to make a decisive difference in a conflict at the state-to-state level. But it certainly could be used effectively by a terrorist group looking to do damage and to gain attention. — Professor Wallerstein