Four principles to guide the US response to cyberattacks

Opening the Overton window on responding to cyberattacks

My latest op-ed tries to open the Overton window on responding to cyberattacks:

Cyber weapons have allowed Russia to reinvent deterrence on the cheap. Recent reports reveal a prolonged, systematic, and not particularly subtle Russian campaign to infiltrate the U.S. power grid.

It raises the prospect that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has the ability to cut off power to large parts of the United States, as he has done already in Ukraine. He has "prepare[d] the battlefield, without pulling the trigger," said one former U.S. official.

All of which raises the question: how to deter him? After all, where Putin goes, Iranian mullahs and Kim Jong Un will not be far behind. If any of these actors knock out even a small segment of our power grid, we will need to retaliate, and not with restraint. It's time to start thinking the unthinkable.

Four principles should guide American decision makers in developing tough responses to other nations' cyber provocation …

Read the rest at Fifth Domain.