Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The U.S. could respond militarily to a potential cyber attack

The Pentagon would consider "all options" if the U.S. were victims of a cyber attack has declared Tuesday, May 31, a spokesman for the Obama administration, saying the Pentagon was trying to develop military rules of conduct for this purpose. May 16, the White House announced new rules stating that the U.S.

"will respond to hostile action in cyber-space in the same manner as any other threat to the country." We reserve the right to use all necessary means - diplomatic, information relating to military and economic - as needed and in compliance with international law, to defend our country, our allies, our partners and interests, "added the text.

"NEW STRATEGY" The Pentagon spokesman, Col. Dave Lapan, when asked on Tuesday to reports on the same day in the Wall Street Journal, confirmed that the policy of the White House did not rule out a military response to a cyber attack. "A response to a cyber incident or a cyber attack against the United States would not necessarily an answer cybernetics," he told reporters.

"If we were attacked, even in the form of cyber-attack, all options are on the table," he said, adding that the Pentagon will unveil the new strategy in the coming weeks. The Wall Street Journal indicates that the Pentagon plans to unveil this new strategy to deter potential enemies of trying to undermine the country's electricity network.

"If you stop our power grid, maybe we'll send one of our missiles," the newspaper said, quoting a military official under cover of anonymity. The United States has argued that this strategy is in line with international rules that prevail in armed conflict, the paper said. CONCEPT OF EQUITY The new strategy also states that the Pentagon could decide to respond militarily to cyber-attacks based on the notion of "equivalence", that is to say whether it believes the damage caused by stroke computer are comparable to those products would have a conventional military attack.

Such a decision will however depend on the degree of accuracy with which the source of the attack can be identified, says the Wall Street Journal. The Pentagon has decided to implement this strategy following the attack in the fall of 2010 by computer virus Stuxnet computers dedicated to Tehran's nuclear program, says the WSJ.

Cyber security is a priority of President Barack Obama, who in 2009 appointed a former adviser to the administration Mouth, Howard Schmidt, the position of coordinator for these issues.

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