Presidential Policy Directive 20, issued to national security and intelligence officials in October, includes an array of procedures to ensure that cyberattacks are lawful and minimize damage. But in bureaucratic language, the directive indicates the government believes cyberattacks, known as “Offensive Cyber Effects Operations,” or OCEO, are becoming common and that cyberwar could be just around the corner. ...WaPo
Didn't realize we'd elected another member of the Cheney family in 2008, did you?
The document acknowledges that cyber operations could come with collateral damage. Cyber operations, “even for subtle and clandestine operations, may generate cyber effects in locations other than the intended target, with potential unintended or collateral consequences that may effect U.S. national interests in many locations.”
It states that only the president can authorize cyber operations inside the United States unless “it qualifies as an Emergency Cyber Action.” ...WaPo
I think we need to look very carefully at what is meant by "U.S. national interests." Because it seems to me that there are two competing sets of "U.S. national interests." On the one side are the increasingly united interests of U.S. government and U.S./transnational corporations. On the other side are the interests of the American people. Of course, the American people want their nation to be as secure as possible. But with a caveat. At no point should we be forced to accept a level of security which is at variance with our freedoms, our independence, and our fair expectations of privacy.
I don't think we want our government to operate by spying on us as individual Americans. But it does and will.
The top-secret 18-page document “provides a procedure for cyber collection operations that are reasonably likely to result in ‘significant consequences,’ ” also known in the national security world as “sensitive offensive cyber operations.”
It also offers glimpses into a burgeoning military and intelligence world that has been blanketed by top secrecy. Among other things, the document indicates that the government deploys people who use online personas for intelligence, counterintelligence and law-enforcement operations. ...WaPo
