Inside the Ring

Cyber threats

The commander of the U.S. Northern Command, Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., said that cyberattacks — from nation states to individual computer hackers — pose one of the most serious threats for the military command that is dedicated to protecting the U.S. from attacks on the homeland.

“The thing that I’m most concerned about, really, is in the cyber area because it may be the one that’s toughest to detect until its upon you,” Gen. Renuart said this week.

Unlike missiles and other “kinetic” threats that normally give the military sufficient response time, cyber attacks are sophisticated, subtle and can hold “a variety of elements of our nation at risk,” he said. “You may not know they are there until after they have an effect.”

Gen. Renuart said Northcom systems, like other parts of the defense information grid, are targeted by large numbers of attempted electronic penetrations every day.

During a recent Northcom exercise, for example, there were “a number” of attempted computer network penetrations from unknown sources, he said.

“Whether it’s to extract information or to in some way subvert information [is] not clear,” he said. “Fortunately we’ve been successful in identifying those attempts and making sure we adjust the system so we continue our defense.”

The attempted cyber penetrations were also noted during Northcom’s support for disaster relief after Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike. “We noted a series of attempts at intrusion into the network,” he said.

It was not clear whether nation states were behind the attempts or they were the work of individuals “trying to figure out what they can find or to make a statement about an event,” Gen. Renuart said.

Gen. Renuart said the sophistication of the “moles” — those trying to break into military and government networks — is growing and often outpaces cyberdefenses.

Asked which states are most active in cyber attacks, Gen. Renuart named China, Russia, Iran and India.

Cyber attackers can mask their strikes by routing their efforts through other countries.

“But certainly the Chinese and the Russians; the Iranians are also sophisticated; the Indians are also sophisticated,” he said.

“You worry that they could create this so-called trap door that in a real crisis they could execute and now information does begin to flow out, or it begins to alter the commands, the communications capabilities you might have with other players,” he said.

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