The Pentagon’s Framework on How and When Forces Can Engage in Cyber WarfareJune 03, 2011

 

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The Pentagon has developed a framework for how the United States will engage in computer warfare, according to an article in The Washington Post.

The list has been in use for several months and has won the approval of other agencies, like the CIA.

“So whether it's a tank, an M-16 or computer virus, it's going to follow the same rules so that we understand how to employ it, and when you can use it, when you can't, what you can and can't use,” a senior military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Post. Bringing cyber technologies for offensive use into an official structure is one of the most significant operational developments in military doctrine in years, the senior official told the Post.

The following is a list compiled from the Post article on how the framework clarifies how and when the U.S. can engage in cyber warfare:

  • The United States need not respond to a cyber attack with its own cyber retaliation. Instead, it may use traditional force as long as it is proportional.
  • The military needs presidential authorization to hack into a foreign computer network in order to leave a virus that can be “turned on” later.
  • The military, however, does not need such approval to penetrate a foreign network for activities like studying its adversaries' cyber capabilities, or how their power plants and computer networks operate.
  • The U.S. military's code warriors can also leave, without presidential authorization, guideposts that can be targeted later with viruses.
  • The use of cyber weapons will have to be proportional to the threat and not inflict undue collateral damage, and at all costs, avoid civilian casualties.
  • When the United States is not at war, the use of cyber weapons will require presidential approval. But in a war zone, presidential approval may be granted in advance to allow commanders in the field to move quickly.