Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar
While it is certainly tempting to want to hit back and zap the sources of the constant cyber probes and occasional breakthroughs that hit federal and major contractor networks, that might not always be the wisest policy. Libicki points out that it is difficult to know the other side's vulnerabilities and ability to withstand a counter attack. And in some cases--for example, China or Russia with whom the U.S. has deep relationships on other strategic fronts--counteroffensive might be more costly than just accepting espionage as a fact of life."Federal Security Spotlight," Federal News Radio, November 12, 2009Martin Libicki is among the coterie of analysts and experts that have been pioneering the strategic study of cyber warfare at the RAND Corporation since the early 1990s, and is today one of the main researchers in this field. His book Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar, as one of the first systematic attempts to apply the notion of deterrence to cyberspace, is groundbreaking in many respects.... A major challenge for twenty-first-century strategists is to gauge how much and how far theoretical concepts and legal regimes that were invented for a different era and different fields will be applicable to cyber and outer space. [This book is] a useful starting point for this task.Survival, August-September 2010