Leon Panetta was blunt, even for a guy who is known to speak his mind. In the heady aftermath of the Osama bin Laden mission, Panetta’s authority on Capitol Hill was all but unquestioned. Despite an atmosphere of bitter partisanship, the longtime Democrat was about to be confirmed as Defense secretary by a vote of 100-0, a rare feat in any era. Now Panetta, the outgoing CIA director, was telling a rapt audience of senators at his confirmation hearing that America’s national-security defense apparatus was underestimating the gravest danger out there. “We talk about nuclear. We talk about conventional warfare. We don’t spend enough time talking about the threat of cyberwar,” he said.
There’s a strong likelihood that the next Pearl Harbor that we confront could very well be a cyberattack.” Whoa. Really? You mean, thousands of people could die in a cyberattack? How exactly would this happen? Could it be like some sort of monstrous video game run amok? Or the 1980s classic War Games, in which a teenage Matthew Broderick almost hacks his way into starting a nuclear war? One thing is certain: Panetta is hardly alone in his alarm; indeed, he is channeling the fears of the nation’s top generals and spooks. On July 14, the Pentagon rolled out its first-ever “cyberspace strategy”
a critical need for the United States because, as Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn declared with alliterative flair that day, “bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs.” The U.S. government is now spending about $12 billion a year to wage both offense and defense in cyberspace, and it has set up a Cyber Command at Fort Meade in Maryland. The Homeland Security Department conducts regular war games that it calls “cyberstorming.” A new multibillion-dollar military-industrial complex is emerging, with giant defense contractors like Boeing and Northrop Grumman transforming themselves into part-time cybersecurity contractors.
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