Counterterrorism Lessons for Cybersecurity: How a Decade’s Worth of Experience Fighting Terrorism Can Provide Insights Into Mitigating the Threat of Cyber Attacks.
Rosenbaum, Benjamin C.
2014
- Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: Cyber attacks are an emerging, and often misunderstood, danger to national security. Although nascent and sophisticated threats emanating from cyberspace might appear overwhelming, remarkably, there are sufficient parallels between Jihadist terrorism and ... read morecyber attacks that can provide useful insights. Both tactics are nebulous, undefined threats that not only jeopardize wide sections of society, but also, make it straightforward for the perpetrators to conceal their identity. These shared attributes complicate efforts to establish a robust deterrence. Yet, the remote plausibility of high impact attacks underscore why these intricate security concerns cannot be ignored. With these parallels in mind, this paper draws upon the lessons learned from over a decade of fighting terrorism, to endorse the following guidelines for cybersecurity policy and strategy: (1) do not ignore deterrence, but recognize that its applications are limited to fostering resilience and deterring nation-states, (2) synchronize government responses and create a federal office to guide strategic direction, (3) bolster the capabilities of the intelligence community to coordinate and unmask perpetrators, (4) raise public awareness to the best computer security practices and reduce threat inflation, (5) work with the private sector to incentivize cybersecurity and maintain trust, (6) engage internationally to promote global norms on cybersecurity and foster information sharing, and (7) determine the risks of potential cyber and non-cyber responses to an attack as a means to understand the long term implications of short term strategies.read less
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