Preemption as a military strategy has moved
from the battlefield to the world's networks. Revelations about a secret
report suggesting President Obama could authorize preemptive
cyberstrikes to deflect threats of an attack on the U.S. have spurred
debate over the merits and risks of a cyberwarfare offensive.
President Obama can order a
preemptive strike if there's credible evidence of a pending major
cyberattack from abroad, a secret legal review has found, according to The New York Times.
New policies will dictate how intelligence agencies can monitor
remote computer networks elsewhere for signs of potential attacks on the
U.S., the newspaper said. The policies will also apparently allow
intelligence agencies to attack adversaries by injecting them with
destructive malware, even if war has not officially been declared.
Counterattacks must be approved by the president first.
The news comes in the wake of recent reports of cyberattacks on the IT infrastructure of the
Times and other major media organizations.
An American power station was the recent target of a cyberattack, the Department of Homeland Security revealed.
