Bytes, Bombs, and Spies: The Strategic Dimensions of Offensive Cyber Operations - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815735472 ISBN 13: 9780815735472

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2019

Synopsis

We are dropping cyber bombs. We have never done that before. U.S. Defense Department official

A new era of war fighting is emerging for the U.S. military. Hi-tech weapons have given way to hi tech in a number of instances recently:

A computer virus is unleashed that destroys centrifuges in Iran, slowing that country’s attempt to build a nuclear weapon.

ISIS, which has made the internet the backbone of its terror operations, finds its network-based command and control systems are overwhelmed in a cyber attack.

A number of North Korean ballistic missiles fail on launch, reportedly because their systems were compromised by a cyber campaign.

Offensive cyber operations like these have become important components of U.S. defense strategy and their role will grow larger. But just what offensive cyber weapons are and how they could be used remains clouded by secrecy.

This new volume by Amy Zegart and Herb Lin is a groundbreaking discussion and exploration of cyber weapons with a focus on their strategic dimensions. It brings together many of the leading specialists in the field to provide new and incisive analysis of what former CIA director Michael Hayden has called digital combat power and how the United States should incorporate that power into its national security strategy.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Offensive cyber operations have become increasingly important elements of U.S. national security policy. From the deployment of Stuxnet to disrupt Iranian centrifuges to the possible use of cyber methods against North Korean ballistic missile launches, the prominence of offensive cyber capabilities as instruments of national power continues to grow. Yet conceptual thinking lags behind the technical development of these new weapons. How might offensive cyber operations be used in coercion or conflict? What strategic considerations should guide their development and use? What intelligence capabilities are required for cyber weapons to be effective? How do escalation dynamics and deterrence work in cyberspace? What role does the private sector play?

In this volume, edited by Herbert Lin and Amy Zegart—co-directors of the Stanford Cyber Policy Program—leading scholars and practitioners explore these and other vital questions about the strategic uses of offensive cyber operations. The contributions to this groundbreaking volume address the key technical, political, psychological, and legal dimensions of the fast-changing strategic landscape.

About the Author:

Dr. Herb Lin is senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford University.

Amy Zegart is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies (FSI), professor of political science (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and a contributing editor to The Atlantic. She is also the Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she directs the Robert and Marion Oster National Security Affairs Fellows program. She is founder and co-director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Program.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0815735472
• ISBN 13: 9780815735472
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 439
• Editor: Lin Herbert