In Panetta’s remarks and in Pentagon budget preview documents, one common theme involved warnings of the threat of cyberwarfare – and questions about whether the Pentagon can handle sophisticated cyberattacks.
As a result, the Pentagon is pumping more money into cyberoperations. In a rare disclosure about what is considered a highly secretive endeavor, Pentagon officials emphasized that this would include “both defensive and offensive capabilities.”
Indeed, Panetta has warned frequently of a cyber “Pearl Harbor” and Thursday he called the threat of cyberattack one of “the most lethal and disruptive threats of the future.”
The Defense secretary cited the perils, too, involved in not pioneering cutting-edge technological advances. “We’re depending a great deal on being at the technological edge of the future,” Panetta said. “We even have to leap forward if we’re going to deal with the kind of challenges we’re going to face. We’ve got to be smart enough, innovative enough, creative enough to be able to leap forward. Can we do that? Can we develop the kind of technology we’re going to need to confront the future?”
That remains to be seen, say many analysts, who add that the answer depends on America’s ability to fight off cyberattacks that may face America’s electrical grid, its banking system, and the communications systems of US military assets on the battlefield.
