US National Cybersecurity: International Politics, Concepts and Organization by Damien van Puyvelde & Aaron Brantly

Author:Damien van Puyvelde & Aaron Brantly [Puyvelde, Damien van & Brantly, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415787994
Goodreads: 32452489
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

8 The innovator’s challenge

Can the US Army learn to out-hack those who attack us in cyberspace?

Ernest Y. Wong, Katherine R. Hutton, and Ryan F. Gagnon*

Ever since the origins of the Republic, the American people have demonstrated that they possess a strong speculative knack and a considerable amount of optimism that have motivated them to develop innovative solutions for resolving tough problems. From the first American colonists who had to make do with the limited resources at their disposal in order to survive, to astronauts who have boldly explored space with what was minimally necessary so that they could successfully break free of gravity, US people have a proud history of developing new concepts, processes, and material for getting the mission accomplished. Today, innovation has become a key buzzword in the US Army, and it is helping to shape the vision for the Army of 2025 and Beyond, as an agile organization that can achieve strategic advantage in a complex world.1

But does the US military have the capabilities and motivations needed to effectively protect vital national interests in cyberspace and meet the demands of the future security environment? Does the US military truly know how to foster innovations that can keep pace with the disruptive effects of cyberattacks in this critical domain of operations within the national security framework? The rapid growth of the Internet in a globally connected world has meant that the tools for operating in cyberspace are constantly changing. To make the situation even more problematic, there are those who believe the US military has turned into such an unwieldy bureaucratic structure that it will not be able to adapt itself into a force that is capable of winning tomorrow’s wars. So, does the US military have the capacity to gain the strategic advantage necessary to effectively out-hack those who attack the nation in the cyber domain?

To address these perplexing issues, this chapter analyzes what innovation really means, and draws distinctions between four different types of innovation: disruptive, breakthrough, sustaining, and incremental. Despite considerable innovations that have taken place for cyber defense, new types of innovation will be necessary to effectively counter those taking place on the offensive side of cyber. Through an examination of disruptive innovations cyber adversaries have developed, this chapter provides insights into why the US military’s focus on breakthrough innovations for cyber defense is failing. By encouraging the military to experiment with more disruptive defensive cyber innovations, US cyber forces have the potential to level the playing field between the offense and the defense in the cyber domain. Defensive and offensive cyber innovations will be more effective if they are used as part of a broader strategy. Here, the US should apply the lessons learned from recent counterinsurgency campaigns and treat malicious cyber actors as an asymmetric threat fighting for control of cyberspace.

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