The Security Dilemma of Cyberspace: Ancient Logic, New Problems

lawfareblog.com

"Operation “Nitro Zeus” illustrates this thinking. As Buchanan explains, in the early stages of the Obama Administration, U.S. hackers went on an expansive hunt for “zero-day” vulnerabilities in Iran’s strategic infrastructures. The raid targeted the Fordo nuclear facility that Washington suspected was purifying uranium to weapons grade. But that was not all. The United States also penetrated Iran’s financial, transportation, and air defense systems. The invaders acted in anticipation of the possible failure of diplomatic efforts to curtail Iranian enrichment activity peacefully. They crafted weapons of war even as they strived to avert it."

I thought the author's idea that it is prohibitively difficult to create exploits in a vacuum, and need to know the specific configuration of your adversary's systems in order to be able to attack or counter-attack was interesting.

If you think it is appropriate for your nation to maintain the ability to respond, then, pragmatically, you support either your nation intruding in other's systems or your nation maintaining a weak deterrent response.

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