July 21, 2014
CNAS: Make cyber deals with Russia, China
Source: POLITICO Pro
Journalist: Joseph Marks
The U.S. should pursue agreements with Russia and China to “buttress the fragile norm that appears to exist” between the three countries of not using cyber intrusions as a means to attack each others’ vital industries, according to a new report from Center for a New American Security Chairman Richard Danzig.
“Apparently, we have not used cyber as a means of physical attack against one another,” states the report, urging the Obama administration to “[a]rticulate a norm of renouncing cyber attacks on civilian infrastructure and discuss this goal with China and Russia even if other kinds of cyber conflict with these countries continue or intensify.”
The three nations should also agree that cyberattacks against each others’ nuclear command and control systems are off the table, states the report, titled “Surviving on a Diet of Poisoned Fruit: Reducing the Risk of America’s Cyber Dependencies.”
Danzig was Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton and a campaign adviser to President Obama. His report makes eight recommendations in total, including the establishment of a federally funded research and development center focused on providing an elite cyber workforce for the federal government where the cyber pros are hired through hacker competitions rather than traditional resumes and interviews.