We’ve done a lot of reporting on cybersecurity over the past few months (cf here, here and here), mostly focused on defense — how the federal government protects itself against intruders.
But the government is also improving its offensive capabilities, a story that gets far less coverage. The New York Times has an interesting article about it this morning:
President Obama is expected to propose a far larger defensive effort in coming days […]
But Mr. Obama is expected to say little or nothing about the nation’s offensive capabilities, on which the military and the nation’s intelligence agencies have been spending billions. In interviews over the past several months, a range of military and intelligence officials, as well as outside experts, have described a huge increase in the sophistication of American cyberwarfare capabilities.
The whole thing is worth a read. There’s a lot of concern about U.S. defensive capabilities — justified concern, in this reporter’s opinion — but it sounds like the offensive side is in much better shape.
