Obama seeks weapons for cyberwar
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on national security leaders to develop destructive cyberwarfare capabilities that could be triggered with “little or no warning” against adversaries around the world, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.
Presidential Policy Directive 20, issued to national security and intelligence officials in October, includes an array of procedures to ensure 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.
“OCEO can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance U. S. national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging,” the document said.
The leak of the document could complicate Saturday summit talks between Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which Obama is expected to complain about Chinese cyberspying and theft of American trade secrets.
Cyber-specialists take it for granted that the United States and China are already engaged in a struggle in cyberspace.
Those summit talks come just days after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, speaking to troops in Hawaii, warned, “Cyber is one of those quiet, deadly, insidious unknowns you can’t see.”
“It’s in the ether - it’s not one big navy sailing into a port or one big army crossing a border or squadrons of fighter planes,” he said. “This is a very difficult but real and dangerous threat. There is no higher priority for our country than this issue.”
The Washington Post first reported about the existence of the directive in November. White House sources then said it was the most extensive effort to date to define the lines between offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The Obama administration later released an unclassified overview of the directive’s highlights.
“As we have already publicly acknowledged, last year the President signed a classified Presidential directive relating to cyber operations, updating a similar directive dating back to 2004,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement Friday.
She added that the directive is part of a push to make cybersecurity a “top priority.”
“This directive establishes principles and processes for the use of cyber operations so that cyber tools are integrated with the full array of national security tools we have at our disposal,” she said.