Trump goes big on cyber warfare

So Donald Trump has loosened all the previous restrictions on resorting to cyber warfare to hit America's enemies and has given his Cyber Command/NSA chief permission to use this deadly weapon whenever he sees fit. The British government has also set up a cyber warfare offensive unit which will do likewise. This is definitely the era of cyber attacks, and with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran already well into their stride in attacking the West with cyber weapons, it's soon going to be time for the world to try and draw up a cyber warfare control treaty. But I guess that's a fantasy. So watch out for some serious retaliatory attacks from the US if Russia and its fellow cyber offenders target American institutions and/or infrastructure. Of course, the US, under previous presidents has already done just that but with no transparency from the White House. Obama approved the cyber attack on Iran's uranium-enrichment centrifuge systems with the devastatingly effective Stuxnet virus in a joint operation with Israel codenamed Olympic Games but the US has still not confirmed it; and North Korea's ballistic missile launch sites were cyber-targeted, causing many of the launches to fail, all done in total secrecy. The biggest hack against the US was carried out by China when Chinese hackers stole 22 million files of people with security clearance from the Office of Personnel Management, a wealth of information which no doubt China's spies are exploiting to the maximum to this day. Was Beijing suitably punished for this espionage intrusion? No is the answer. Beijing has always denied doing any such thing but is probably plotting to do something similar at any moment. Cyber warfare in any government's hands is a dangerous game. When, for example, will the British government feel it is appropriate for the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ, the signals intelligence service, to launch a cyber attack and against whom? Likewise, can we expect cyber attacks from the US to become a regular occurrence? The man to watch is General Paul Miki Nakasone. He is the relatively new boss at the NSA and Cyber Command, a super-powerful dual position, especially under Trump. Like US commanders in Afghanistan and Syria, the four-star US Army general will now have leeway to cyber attack without having to go through the bureaucratic process required when Obama was in charge. The NSA director then had to ask almost everyone for their view first, not just the president but the Department of Commerce and Homeland Security and a host of other interested parties. Personally, a little bureaucracy for using such a significant weapon of war sounds somewhat reassuring. However, bureaucracy was the reason why Osama bin Laden wasn't killed in 2002 in Afghanistan. A very tall bloke looking remarkably like the al-Qaeda leader was spotted in northern Afghanistan heading Pakistanwards and a request was made to greet him with a precision-guided bomb. But first permission had to be given by the Pentagon and the White House and by the time everyone had had a good chat and then relayed a signal saying YES OK, bin Laden had moved on and disappeared. It took another nine years to get him. In this new cyber world, General Nakasone will be able to attack with a cyber weapon if in his judgment it is reasonable, necessary and urgent.