These efforts focus inward on what we re doing to enhance our personnel strengths. We must also maintain our focus on mitigating the external threats to our networks. Though the recent highly publicized Distributed Denial of Service attacks did not affect any Air Force systems, we are just as susceptible to this kind of crippling attack as the commercial sector. Individual hackers and hacker groups have proliferated over the last year and we must remain vigilant against the potential of these attacks every day. Good networks, good procedures, good training, and good protection tools are the bedrock of our defense.
Viruses also remain a potential threat.
We not only need to prepare for and protect ourselves from network vandalism, but we must also treat our networks as the weapons systems they ve become. Whether viewed offensively or defensively they are weapons systems. Modern high-tech warfare cannot win without the Net, nor can it be won just on the Net. In the future there must be a coordinated land, sea, air, space, electronic and Net warfare, and the state's determination will be fully expressed in this mysterious theater space. This quote, reported in the 1 Nov 99 Washington Times, is from an article in China s Liberation Army Daily, the official daily newspaper of the People's Liberation Army General Political Department.